Mother Writer

Do You Write for Passion or Money?

2011-09-13T14:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been around much ... busy working on the other blogs and getting published in 75 places and making money for things like kid activities and new glasses and a root canal and 2 crowns! Life sneaks up on you financially and before you know it you are writing for money and not necessarily for the love of writing, ya know?

Then there's that little thing I do called homeschooling 3 kids while wrangling 2 more all day long, sometimes with a traveling husband.

Wouldn't it be nice to have just like 1 more hour in the day when you could work on whatever writing project you wanted to? Memoir, novel, essay, humor, script, poem?

If you haven't been over to Get Published in Parenting and Family Magazines yet and you are a writer mama, you hafta go! The ebook price has been cut in half, so it's only 10 bucks, and you get hundreds of markets. Plus I'm adding new ones to the blog all the time for NADA, NOTHIN', FREE!

Articles That Speak To You. No, I'm Not Crazy.

2011-07-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

It’s funny how articles often start as one idea or theme and then they tell you which way they want to go instead. I started a piece about Lessons Grandparents Teach and had things like patience, downtime is good, older can be cool, etc.

It wasn’t flowing and wasn’t making sense, but other ideas were coming, so I just typed them up to see if there was a common theme I could run with. I ended up with a piece about things grandparents can do with or for their grandkids … like go on a nature walk turning over rocks and looking for bugs, teach a skill, bake something.

After I found what it wanted to be, it flowed and was easy to write.

As a bonus, it turned out to be an homage to my kids’ 6 grandparents, as well, and I felt proud of it.

Let your writing speak to you!

What's Your Writing Routine?

2011-07-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

"It's not that I don't love to see your sweet face, pumpkin, but it's 6:45 and Mommy got up early to write. You need to go back to sleep so Mommy doesn't sit around watching Maisy all morning with you!"

I've started to try to follow that writing advice that I absolutely HATE. The advice about getting up early to write. I love the quiet of the house, and I do get some writing done, but I also find that I have written in chaos so much over the years that the quiet sometimes bugs me. Still ... it is uninterrupted (usually) writing time, and I can at least COMPLETE A THOUGHT! Coffee helps.

I'm wondering about your writing routine. Do you write early in the morning, while you're at your day job, after work, during the day while you have 10 kids milling around you, at 2 a.m.?

Endorsement Requests and an Update on My Writing

2011-05-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I'm a bad mother writer. I'm spending all my time writing and submitting and working on my other blogs. I'll try to update you more often on what I'm working on so we can talk about it.

Today I sent out my first endorsement request for my ebook about getting published in parenting and family magazines. I hope to send out a bunch more in the weeks to come. I'm hoping endorsements and good comments from professional writers will help sell my ebooks since I really think it's a helpful resource.

I also submitted 2 stories to 2 different Chicken Soup for the Soul upcoming books (see http://getpublishedparentingmags.com for a link to the opportunities).

This week I'll be working on shaping some queries for nationals. I have 35 regional articles under my belt and 60 publishing credits, so I think I need to move on to some other stuff now. I'll have to mass-submit queries to the nationals and hope to get a bite!

I also hope to get some things on writing in some writing magazines and online sites.

Oh, and there are those other ebooks that are telling me they want to be written.

So many ideas, so little Internet access and so little time!

What are YOU working on?

Online Writing Groups

2011-04-29T19:52:00.000-07:00

Does anyone belong to a great online writing group? I have to say I get tired of signing up for these and then most of the talk revolves around the most mundane crap, like what someone should share in their Tweets, or what's going on with their kids. I'm like, "Come on! Let's talk about WRITING!"

So if you belong to a decent writing group, whether through Facebook or LinkedIn or wherever, please let me know. I'd love to get a group together for just writers of regional parenting magazines so we can discuss pay info and who steals your work ... juicy stuff!

Google Alert Your Name!

2011-01-31T11:32:00.000-08:00

Come on over to www.GetPublishedParentingMags.com to see what I have to say about Google Alerting your name. It's a great way to find money!

Writing With a Big Family

2010-12-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Come on over to this post to find out how I manage writing and raising a big family. Hopefully this will make your life seem like cake and you will get off my blog and start writing the next Great American Novel or Writer's Digest feature article!

Articles as Babies

2010-11-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know I have five actual children. I love every single one of 'em, too. Sometimes, though, I liken my articles and essays to children. The writing process is often like growing a baby and going through labor. When a piece is published, it's like the excitement of childbirth. I'm not trying to take away from the miracle of having children; just saying you can be passionate about two things at once (or three, if you count your spouse!).

I'd love to hear about your writing processes and victories! Write me!

Your Ebook Publishing Questions Answered

2010-05-02T03:58:00.000-07:00

Today at The WM Freelance Connection, I answer questions about ebook formatting, selling, shopping cart systems, marketing, etc.

Demand Studios

2010-04-26T06:53:00.000-07:00

So ehow.com is now only Demand Studios. Apparently I made the cut and now work for Demand Studios based on my 17 articles I'd written for ehow.com. I guess some ehow.com writers didn't make the cut.

I've heard a lot about Demand Studios and am actually excited to start claiming assignments and writing them within 7 days. Now I just have to make sure I have an internet connection within 7 days so I can submit my article ... I'll be hitting up my friends and offering them babysitting in exchange for their Internet.

How to Publish an Ebook

2010-04-25T03:56:00.000-07:00

Check out my post today at The WM Freelance Connection on the process of publishing my first ebook. Then next Sunday I'll answer questions about formatting, selling, shopping cart systems, marketing, etc.

Come on Over ...

2010-04-21T01:54:00.000-07:00

... to The WM Freelance Connection to see what they are talking about today. And if you just can't get enough, sign up for an e-mail subscription!

Sappy Mom Published Essay

2010-04-19T02:00:00.000-07:00

Check out this link to a piece published in Houston Family this month called Sappy Mom. Who knew a little journaling could lead to the sale of a personal essay?

If I can do it, so can you!

Women Having It All

2010-04-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, I believe you can have it all.

But maybe just not all at the same time. Or maybe you focus on one aspect of your life (family) while chugging away SLOWLY at your writing career. Maybe you choose instead to flip that scenario, hire a full-time sitter and go full-force at your writing career.

Where are you at right now? Do you think you have it all? Do you get frustrated that there aren’t more hours in the day?

When Multi-Tasking Turns Bad

2010-04-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

Growing up, my parents sometimes told me I did jobs around the house in a half-assed manner. They would also call me “Sidetrack” because it would take me hours to clean my room since I could get easily sidetracked by any piece of paper or article of clothing.

When I was fired from my job as Administrative Assistant to the president of a PR firm at the age of 27, my boss told me I needed focus. I didn’t understand what she meant.

It’s frustrating to realize that in trying to do too many things and suck so much out of life, I am sometimes good at nothing. I love writing so much that I am saying YES to so many opportunities that come my way, and yet I also have these wonderful kids and a great husband and a rich family life.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Can Creative People Get Organized?

2010-04-12T03:24:00.000-07:00

I always thought I was left- AND right-brained and could do it all. But the more I write, the worse I get about logging checks that come in, logging submissions going out and logging publications that may or may not want to use my work in a few months (something I need to follow up on and need a system for doing so).

Since you are a creative person, do you have trouble keeping track of the organization and financial parts of your writing business?

Time Wasters

2010-04-09T03:23:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, the Internet can be a HUGE time waster. When I had it all weekend long I could kill some time on Facebook checking on my friends. I wouldn’t even play the games, just check in on people for fun. And organize everyone into groups.

Now that I only have about an hour or two a week on the Internet, I really have to focus. I have to get in and get out quickly. If you want to talk to me, call me on the phone because I mostly use Facebook and Twitter to pimp my blog posts and e-books and eHows.

And when I’m logged into email and Facebook, I’ll usually show up as “Busy”, “Invisible” or “Offline” because I definitely don’t have time to chat unless I see an associate online and need a question answered fast.

And don’t get me started on all the email clogging up my inbox.

How would your writing benefit from you taking a break from most social interaction on the Internet?

Organizing Ideas

2010-04-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

How do you organize your ideas for articles, books, poems, etc.?

I have spiral notebooks in my car, by where I nurse and in my diaper bag. I have so many ideas written down that I may never discover them all. God forbid I lose one of those notebooks.

I also have loose pieces of paper all over the house.

And loose pieces of paper filed away under “Ideas” in a filing cabinet by my desk. Ask me the last time I consulted that file. I don’t remember.

I’m just happy to have my ideas out of my head and down on paper. I figure they’ll float back to me when I need them, when I have a shortage of ideas.

Where do you keep all your ideas? How do you stay organized?

Your Mothering/Writing Super Power

2010-04-05T03:21:00.000-07:00

What’s your mothering/writing super power?

I can nurse and type at the same time.

Or type two-handed with a sleeping baby on my shoulder.

Oh, and I can jot down article ideas while I watch my kids at gymnastics class.

And I swear I’m faster than a speeding bullet when I only have one hour at McDonald’s to use their WiFi and get all kinds of writing junk done.

Offering Sample Chapters of Ebooks

2010-03-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of offering a sample chapter of an ebook, like these women did with "Cash In On Your Kids: Parenting Queries That Worked".

The sample of the above-mentioned e-book led me to buy the actual e-book, plus the fact that I could use PayPal (it's like play money!) to buy it for only $9.95 was awesome.

I'm gonna do it. Yep, I'm gonna offer a free tiny download of my ebook about getting published in regional parenting mags. I'll have to find the time to do that ... it'll have to go on my to do list. Where did I put that pesky little list?

Now, if only I could get the writers of "Cash In On Your Kids: Parenting Queries That Worked" to change their recommendation of an e-book on getting published in regional parenting magazines to MY ebook! Mine is longer, better, and cheaper!

How to Write With Focus

2010-03-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

People, I'm nearly 39 years old here, and I have GOT to get serious about this writing thing. I mean, I'm proud of the ebook I put out last summer, but it is in serious need of a 2nd edition, which I'm working on. The 2nd edition is taking as long as the 1st, though, because I really want to make it rock. After checking the table of contents of some other writing books I own, I realized that MY table of contents has no rhyme or reason.

Take Writer Mama, for instance. It has 4 main sections that go in a logical order AND they all start with the letter "P" for God's sake! That is some serious focus. My table of contents went in an order like I wrote it the last time I was drunk, which was in, like, 1999.

So I'm trying to hunker down and get all this great information in there and THEN I'll organize it.

Wish me luck, fellow writers.

How NOT To Sell Your E-book

2010-03-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

So I finally got one whole hour to myself last weekend to go to McDonald's to work on writing stuff. Yep, I left FIVE KIDS at home with my man and got out ALONE. The first thing I did was ...

... spill iced tea all over the table at McDonald's. So I cleaned that up.

Then I got down to work. I checked my Google Alerts (I was way behind) for the ones with "parenting magazines" and came across a cool freelancing blog (don't worry; I'll add it to my sites on this page) and left a comment about my e-book having about 200 regional parenting magazine listings where this person had an offering of about 20 in one post.

The next day I got a message from her saying she'd deleted my post and that I was kind of a jerk to pimp my ebook like that on a site without even putting a link to her blog on my blog. She let me have it. I wrote her back to apologize and offer her a free copy of the ebook to review instead. We're cool now.

Long story short: just because you are a Mother Writer short on time, don't act like some sort of one-night-stand guy when pushing your wares.

In Need of Quotes

2010-03-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

So ... how do you sneak in sex when you're a parent? How about if you are a cosleeping parent? I'm in need of quotes from all over the USA for a piece I'm playing around with in my head for parenting magazines. You can email me at mommykerrie at yahoo dot com.

Thanks!

The WM Freelance Connection

2010-01-20T14:51:00.001-08:00

I'll be spending most of my time over at The WM Freelance Connection. Well, Sundays, anyway. It's such a great freelance writing resource! As I write more and have more run-ins with, say, publications that steal my work (bastards!), I'll put that stuff on here, so you'd be smart to sign up for an email update of this blog. Otherwise, I'll be putting Writing Opportunities, Writers to Watch and other good info on The WM Freelance Connection. We also have a great 2-week series on content mills coming up!

Catch you later!

About Blogging

2009-10-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

Come on over to Writing Mommies to check out a book review on a book about improving your blogging, which could in turn improve your writing in general.

Invoicing

2009-09-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a magazine will request an invoice from you so they can forward it to their Accounts Payable department. (printable sample included with my e-book kit). Just fill in your information, save it on your computer with an appropriate file name (2009 Family Time 01.doc or 2009 Family Time Moms Making Money.doc) using the Save As function in your word processing program, then e-mail it to the editor as an attachment.

Some magazines prefer to pay you via PayPal. Sign up for a PayPal account, and you can quickly send and track invoices using PayPal’s templates.

If an RPM asks you how much you want for an article, consider the size of the RPM and ask anywhere from $15-50. If you are promoting something in your byline/bio (like an e-book or book), you might consider offering the piece for free.

**Some magazines get so many submissions that they sometimes forget to e-mail you first to talk payment, etc. before running your piece (or they assume you are giving them your submission as a gift, so watch out!). To catch mentions of you or your writing to make sure you’re getting paid for your work, sign up for Google News Alerts at http://alerts.google.com. Just enter your name as the search term and have Google notify you via e-mail when it pops up on the Internet. Since you can enter many search terms, go ahead and also enter any article titles that you submit.

*The above was taken from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” … available now for only $15.

Being Successful

2009-09-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Come on over to the Writing Mommies blog today to check out my post on being successful as a writer (hint: quit screwing around on Twitter!).

My Editorial Wish

2009-09-19T04:41:00.000-07:00

I wish all editors would take 3 seconds to send out a NO or a "we don't use freelancers" for every article sent to them. It would save EVERYONE so much time ... save editors time reading email they can't use and save writers time submitting to dead ends! In a perfect world!

Mistakes to Avoid, Part 5

2009-09-18T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I’m taking the 18 Mistakes to Avoid from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” (only $15!!!) and putting them here. Good luck with your writing!

15. Don’t get in a rut of only writing feature-type articles because many RPMs love personal and humorous essays.

16. Don’t take it personally if you never hear back from an editor on a piece. They receive far too many submissions to personally reject or accept every one.

17. Don’t assume your piece isn’t wanted if you don’t hear back immediately. I once got an acceptance from an editor two months after I had submitted my piece.

18. Don’t forget to do a little research. Set aside a little time to check out some of the RPMs online, especially if you don’t have writer’s guidelines for them. Many even have back issues so you can get a feel for what they have already published.

Mistakes to Avoid, Part 4

2009-09-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I’m taking the 18 Mistakes to Avoid from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” (only $15!!!) and putting them here. Good luck with your writing!

11. Don’t forget to keep records so you don’t send a piece to the same publication twice (and for tax time!). Sample Excel spreadsheets are included in this kit.

12. Don’t expect to see a final draft of your article before it prints.

13. Don’t give up; getting published is a numbers game, even with a well-written piece. There are a lot of writers out there competing for limited print space. You may not hear back from the majority of magazines you submit to. This doesn’t mean they hate you; it means they get a lot of material to wade through and your piece may not fit in with what they need or they may already have something similar. They may also contact you months later. Keep sending out different articles all the time!

14. Don’t make international mistakes. Watch out when submitting to other countries … check over your article and make sure you aren’t mentioning a business they don’t have in Canada, for example. Or that you don’t send a piece on the 4th of July to Australia.

Mistakes to Avoid, Part 3

2009-09-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I’m taking the 18 Mistakes to Avoid from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” (only $15!!!) and putting them here. Good luck with your writing!

7. Don’t mix up a query with a submission. A query is a detailed letter outlining what you propose to write for a magazine. A submission is when you send the entire article or essay, sometimes offering to grab local sources and quotes if the editor is interested in publishing your work. RPMs want you to submit the entire article or essay.

8. Don’t forget to get a concrete deadline from the editor on rewrites or on getting local quotes/sources. Don’t bust your butt if an editor is going to be on vacation for the next 2 weeks.

9. Don’t forget about your time. You can choose to hunt down local quotes or not. It’s often time-consuming when you’re just starting out and before you have a large networking database. You can say no.

10. Don’t waste too much time on networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, Café Mom, MySpace, etc. Get in, post your link to your author web site or newly published article, and GET OUT.

Mistakes to Avoid, Part 2

2009-09-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I’m taking the 18 Mistakes to Avoid from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” (only $15!!!) and putting them here. Good luck with your writing!

4. Don’t be afraid to write for online sites. So you don’t have a print copy to show off to family and friends, but you can sure print it as a clip for your portfolio. Plus, it’s great to have a link to your actual article online to add to your author web page.

5. Don’t go local right away. Of course RPMs all love a local angle. But it would take you many hours to research a local sidebar for over 200 RPMs, then e-mail each one separately. Instead, send your general article with an e-mail cover letter stating that you would be happy to come up with a local sidebar if they are interested in buying your article.

6. Don’t slack off once you get a few articles published. Challenge yourself using a great web site called “30 Queries in 30 Days” (http://30queries30days.com) … pick a month and submit 30 articles or essays in 30 days! Don’t forget to check out the Bonus Section of national and online publications for submitting.

Mistakes to Avoid

2009-09-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week I’m taking the 18 Mistakes to Avoid from my e-book, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” (only $15!!!) and putting them here. Good luck with your writing!

1. Don’t forget to talk money upfront. Make sure you know what you’re getting paid for (print, Web rights or both?). Some RPMs buy all rights … so watch out for them because you can’t sell your piece anywhere ever again. If you are asked how much you want for an article, consider where the RPM is located and how many copies they distribute.

2. Don’t submit your article as an attachment unless writer’s guidelines specifically ask for it that way. If a magazine is interested in your submission based on seeing it in the body of an e-mail, they can always ask you to submit it as an attachment later.

3. Don’t be afraid to write for free sometimes. Larry Getlen (www.larrygelten.com) advises in the 2007 Writer’s Market, “When you’re just starting out, clips and experience are more important than money.”

Business Cards!

2009-09-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

Come see me at Writing Mommies to check out my new, cheap business cards and find out how you can get some to promote your writing.

Writing Timekeeping

2009-09-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

I set up a crazy Excel spreadsheet to track my writing time (comes free with my e-book, Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines) when I was trying to show my husband how LITTLE time I actually was writing.

I used one of those Pampered Chef kitchen timers to keep track of my time all day long. It was easy if I worked on my e-book all day long or on a marketing manual or something like that, but it I was posting blogs, working on my Facebook network (invaluable when it’s time to get quotes for articles), working on an article, checking e-mail, writing an eHow, and so on, it was hard to keep track of it all for just one day.

So I gave up. It’s not like I’m making enough money right now to justify keeping track. I mean, we all know you can spend about 3 hours working on an article you get paid $25 for and then MAYBE sell it as a reprint a few more times.

Do you keep track of the time you write, or do you just write?

A Chip Off the Proofreading Block

2009-09-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

This is my daughter proofreading our last Christmas letter. Ah, she's so like me. I love proofreading and would do it at home as a job if didn't homeschool and love writing articles so much.

Twitter

2009-09-07T01:00:00.000-07:00

So do you use Twitter to promote your writing, or is just another place to jack around and waste time?

I definitely don't use it enough ... and I forget that whenever I tweet, it posts to my Facebook account, also, which could be killing 2 birds with one stone.

What do you think of Twitter?

Watch Who You Write About

2009-09-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Come see me at Writing Mommies for a couple of stories about watching who you write about.

How I Steal Writing Time

2009-08-30T19:38:00.000-07:00

This is what Aron does with the kids sometimes on weekends while I try to sneak in a few minutes of writing. I love when kids get to Eva’s age and they bring you a picture book and beg you to sit with them and tell them the names of things they point to.

Sample email cover letter for an original submission

2009-08-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

This is a page taken from my ebook, Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines, which can be purchased for $15 using the link at the left.

Most of your cover letters will be more general, but for this publication I knew

(1) they wanted seasonal material 6 months out instead of only 3;

(2) they wanted the document as an attachment;

(3) their preferred word count;

(4) the editor’s name, so I popped it in to make it more personal.

I also offered a local sidebar in an effort to get this piece sold quickly and to give it more appeal. Notice how I did not offer local quotes, which are often very difficult to get.

"Dear Ms. Smith,

The problem of where to go on Christmas Day and who to spend the holidays with is one that’s universal. And it only gets more difficult when you have kids. Many new (and not-so-new) parents find themselves feeling pulled in too many different directions during a time that is already stressful. My piece (attached as a Word document), “Dreaming of a Peaceful Christmas”, aims to help solve this dilemma. At 861 words, I believe it would be a great fit for your December issue. If you decide to purchase this piece, I would be happy to include a local sidebar of your choice (e.g., local volunteer holiday opportunities).

I have been published in several publications, including Family Time, Georgia Family, Columbus Parent, Kansas City Parent, Montgomery Parents, Calgary’s Child and Ithaca Child (links available at http://KerrieMcLoughlin.blogspot.com).

Please contact me if you are interested in using this article. I look forward to hearing from you!"

Local Quotes and Sidebars

2009-08-15T22:55:00.000-07:00

Today I'm hangin' out over at Writing Mommies talking about when an editor wants local quotes and sidebars. Come check it out!

Writing Mommy Realities

2009-08-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

If you write from home and parent your kids at the same time, you will have days like this:

1. The toddler is screaming for a drink while you are on the phone with an editor. Thankfully, the editor will say she understands because she is all about family.

2. You will spill coffee on drafts of articles.

3. You will be able to work for 5 minutes at a stretch before one of your kids needs or wants something.

4. You will turn from your desk to see a torn-apart house, and won’t care as long as you got some quality writing in.

Mother Writer Needed a Break

2009-08-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

Once my e-book was published and I did a tiny bit of marketing recently, I turned into a total slug. I had just gotten 4 assignments from a regional parenting magazine, and I was afraid my mojo was all gone … no more blogging? No more articles? No more energy to pimp my e-book? No urge to whip out an essay on tandem nursing? No desire to write my life story?

Yeah, I know my situation is different because I’m 7 months pregnant, but I had plenty of energy until recently. I was worried for a few days that I may be sick of writing, but it turns out all I needed was a break, and some extra B-12.

I needed to lay around on the couch and ignore all housework.

I needed to try to organize my writing desk a little since there were papers EVERYWHERE.

I needed to put my Writer Mama bumper sticker on my van since we’re not upgrading to a 12-passenger vehicle.

I needed to get engrossed in a book that would keep me sitting on my butt for long periods of time while my kids played. I chose Twilight, by the way. And then loved it so much that I ran to my Half Price Books to buy the second book in the series. It’s just so easy and romantic and suspenseful and fluffy. I heard the movie sucks.

Writing Mommies Blog

2009-08-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

You have to check out the Writing Mommies blog ... I'm pushing it hard because it's very cool AND because I was asked to write for it on Sundays! Come on over, check it out and become a Follower (leading is so last year)!

"Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines"

2009-07-31T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm pimping my e-book hard. Read on ...

Most of you out there have a parenting article in you.

Your age doesn’t matter. In fact, the longer you’ve been parenting the more experience you have to write about.

Not a parent? Just do lots of research and write about something that annoys you about people with kids.

Are you a dad? You have a unique perspective that moms want to read about.

Check out my huge e-book kit, “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines”.

This 400-page e-book features contact information for over 200 regional parenting magazines, as well as a bonus section of 29 national and online publications such as Parents, BabyTalk, Mothering, Family Fun, Highlights and homeschool magazines. Many of the magazines have writer’s guidelines and pay information.

You are on your way to getting assignments from editors!!!!!

Get Published!!!

2009-07-25T05:10:00.001-07:00

Have you always wanted to write for a print publication, but don’t have the time to tediously gather information and read over sample and online copies? Are you a Mom Blogger sitting on some pretty good essay material? Don’t worry, I’ve done the upfront legwork for you with my latest e-book called “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines”.

My valuable 400-page e-book kit contains information for over 200 regional parenting publications in the United States, Canada and Australia. Your first sale will pay for the cost of the e-book, and then you’re on your way to more success, including getting assignments from editors where you don’t even have to come up with the ideas!

There’s also an Excel e-mail address database so you can get started quickly. Then, once you have some published credits under your belt, check out the BONUS SECTION of 29 national and online publications. The kit also includes spreadsheets for keeping track of submissions, time and money.

What makes this e-book kit so valuable and so different from anything else you’ll find is that (1) many online sources only list 20 or so parenting magazines and their writer’s guidelines
(2) much of the information is outdated
(3) you don’t have to go digging around the Internet, spending your precious time to gather the information.
For $25, I’ve saved you hours of work that you can instead spend writing!

Jennifer Gregory of Raleigh, NC said this before she had even used the e-book: “This is very complete and will save a TON of time. The listings for the publications are very comprehensive and save so much time looking up the writers guidelines. I also really like the spreadsheet and how you note things like no reprints and exclusive. This will be great as a quick reference.”

After submitting an article, she wrote, “I just wanted to thank you! I used the information in your book already. The publisher of [one] RPM contacted me and said that they had just run a similar story, but wanted to see more of my stuff. I sent her samples and she called me to talk her publication because she said my stuff was really good. We talked for a while and she asked me to submit 5-6 ideas based on their upcoming calendar. I sent 6 ideas and she replied that she loved all of them and wanted me to do write them. So, thank you... You've already got me some work and a hopefully regular client.”

Here’s the link to buy “Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines” … available for only $25. If you know anyone who would benefit from this e-book, please pass on this blog post or the buying link. You can even view the Table of Contents before you buy.

Thanks, and good luck!

An Interview with Christina Katz

2009-07-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

Author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform & Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

Christina Katz is the author of Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform (Writer’s Digest Books). She started her platform “for fun” seven years ago and ended up on “Good Morning America.” Christina teaches e-courses on platform development and writing nonfiction for publication. Her students are published in national magazines and land agents and book deals. Christina has been encouraging reluctant platform builders via her e-zines for five years, has written hundreds of articles for national, regional, and online publications, and is a monthly columnist for the Willamette Writer. A popular speaker at writing conferences, writing programs, libraries, and bookstores, she hosts the Northwest Author Series in Wilsonville, Oregon. She is also the author of Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids (Writer’s Digest Books).

Q: What is a platform?

CK: Long story short: Your platform communicates your expertise to others, and it works all the time so you don’t have to. Your platform includes your Web presence, any public speaking you do, the classes you teach, the media contacts you’ve established, the articles you’ve published, and any other means you currently have for making your name and your future books known to a viable readership. If others already recognize your expertise on a given topic or for a specific audience or both, then that is your platform.

A platform-strong writer is a writer with influence. Get Known explains in plain English, without buzzwords, how any writer can stand out from the crowd of other writers and get the book deal. The book clears an easy-to-follow path through a formerly confusing forest of ideas so any writer can do the necessary platform development they need to do.

Q: Why is platform development important for writers today?

CK: Learning about and working on a solid platform plan gives writers an edge. Agents and editors have known this for years and have been looking for platform-strong writers and getting them book deals. But from the writer’s point-of-view, there has not been enough information on platform development to help unprepared writers put their best platform forward.

Now suddenly, there is a flood of information on platform, not all necessarily comprehensive, useful or well organized for folks who don’t have a platform yet. Writers can promote themselves in a gradual, grounded manner without feeling like they are selling out. I do it, I teach other writers to do it, I write about it on an ongoing basis, and I encourage all writers to heed the trend. And hopefully, I communicate how in a practical, step-by-step manner that can serve any writer. Because ultimately, before you actively begin promoting yourself, platform development is an inside job requiring concentration, thoughtfulness and a consideration of personal values.

Q: How did you come to write Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: I already had a lot of momentum going when I got the deal for a very specific audience. I wrote a column on the topic for the Willamette Writer’s newsletter. Then I started speaking on platform. When I gave my presentation, “Get Known Before the Book Deal,” at the Writer’s Digest/BEA Writer’s Conference in May 2007, Phil Sexton, one of my publisher’s sales guys, saw it and suggested making the concept into a book. Coincidentally, I was trying to come up with an idea for my second book at that time and had just struck out with what I thought were my three best ideas. My editor, Jane Friedman agreed with Phil. That was two votes from people sitting on the pub board. They converted the others with the help of my proposal, and Get Known got the green light.

Q: Why was a book on platform development needed?

CK: Writers often underestimate how important platform is and they often don’t leverage the platform they already have enough. At every conference I presented, I took polls and found that about 50 percent of attendees expressed a desire for a clearer understanding of platform. Some were completely in the dark about it, even though they were attending a conference in hopes of landing a book deal. Since book deals are granted based largely on the impressiveness of a writer’s platform, I noticed a communication gap that needed to be addressed.

My intention was that Get Known would be the book every writer would want to read before attending a writer’s conference, and that it would increase any writer’s chances of landing a book deal whether they pitched in-person or by query. As I wrote the book, I saw online how this type of information was being offered as “insider secrets” at outrageous prices. No one should have to pay thousands of dollars for the information they can find in my book for the price of a paperback! Seriously. You can even ask your library to order it and read it for free.

Q: What is the key idea behind Get Known Before the Book Deal?

CK: Getting known doesn’t take a lot of money, but it does take an in-depth understanding of platform, and then the investment of time, skills and consistent effort to build one. Marketing experience and technological expertise are also not necessary. I show how to avoid the biggest time and money-waster, which is not understanding who your platform is for and why – and hopefully save writers from the confusion and inertia that can result from either information overload or not taking the big picture into account before they jump into writing for traditional publication.

Often writers with weak platforms are over-confident that they can impress agents and editors, while others with decent platforms are under-confident or aren’t stressing their platform-strength enough. Writers have to wear so many hats these days, we can use all the help we can get. Platform development is a muscle, and the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Anyone can do it, but most don’t or won’t because they either don’t understand what is being asked for, or they haven’t overcome their own resistance to the idea. Get Known offers a concrete plan that can help any writer make gains in the rapidly changing and increasingly competitive publishing landscape.

Q: What is the structure of the book and why did you choose it?

CK: Writer Mama was written in small, easy-to-digest chunks so busy new moms could stick it in a diaper bag and read it in the nooks and crannies of the day. Get Known is a bit more prosaic, especially in the early chapters. Most of the platform books already out there were only for authors, not writers or aspiring authors. To make platform evolution easy to comprehend, I had to dial the concepts back to the beginning and talk about what it’s like to try and find your place in the world as an author way before you’ve signed a contract, even before you’ve written a book proposal. No one had done that before in a book for writers. I felt writers needed a context in which to chart a course towards platform development that would not be completely overwhelming.

Introducing platform concepts to writers gives them the key information they need to succeed at pitching an agent either via query or in-person, making this a good book for a writer to read before writing a book proposal. Get Known has three sections: section one is mostly stories and cautionary tales, section two has a lot of to-do lists any writer should be able to use, and section three is how to articulate your platform clearly and concisely so you won’t waste a single minute wondering if you are on the right track.

Q: At the front of Get Known, you discuss four phases of the authoring process. What are they?

CK: First comes the platform development and building phase. Second comes the book proposal development phase (or if you are writing fiction, the book-writing phase). Third, comes the actual writing of the book (for fiction writers this is likely the re-writing of the book). And finally, once the book is published, comes the book marketing and promoting phase.

Many first-time authors scramble once they get a book deal if they haven’t done a thorough job on the platform development phase. Writers who already have a platform have influence with a fan base, and they can leverage that influence no matter what kind of book they write. Writing a book is a lot easier if you are not struggling to find readers for the book at the same time. Again, agents and editors have known this for a long time.

Q: What are some common platform mistakes writers make?

CK: Here are a few:

• They don’t spend time clarifying who they are to others.
• They don’t zoom in specifically on what they offer.
• They confuse socializing with platform development.
• They think about themselves too much and their audience not enough.
• They don’t precisely articulate all they offer so others get it immediately.
• They don’t create a plan before they jump online.
• They undervalue the platform they already have.
• They are overconfident and think they have a solid platform when they have only made a beginning.
• They become exhausted from trying to figure out platform as they go.
• They pay for “insider secrets” instead of trusting their own instincts.
• They blog like crazy for six months and then look at their bank accounts and abandon the process as going nowhere.

I’ll stop there. Suffice it to say that many writers promise publishers they have the ability to make readers seek out and purchase their book. But when it comes time to demonstrate this ability, they can’t deliver.

My mission is to empower writers to be 100 percent responsible for their writing career success and stop looking to others to do their promotional work for them. Get Known shows writers of every stripe how to become the writer who can not only land a book deal, but also influence future readers to plunk down ten or twenty bucks to purchase their book. It all starts with a little preparation and planning. The rest unfolds from there.

Q: Couldn’t any author have written this book? Why you?

CK: I have built a career over the past decade empowering writers. I’ve developed and built my own platform as a writing-for-traditional-publication specialist, and I’ve worked with others as a writing and platform-development instructor. Many of the people I’ve been working with are landing book deals and while the other hundred-or-so writers I work with a year are developing their skills, I notice patterns of behavior—what leads to success, where writers get stuck, and how I can be helpful in these rapidly changing times in the industry.

I’ve witnessed too many writers, who were off to a great start, hopping online and quickly becoming very lost. I started to write about platform in Writer Mama, How To Raise A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, but I quickly noticed that more details on platform development were desperately needed. My platform is based on helping others. I have a vested interest in seeing the people I work with—and those who read my book—succeed. Writers are my tribe.

Taking on Assignments

2009-07-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

In the process of finishing up the e-book of writer's guidelines, I submitted a Christmas article to most of my spreadsheet of regional parenting magazines. I did it very early so my mind would still be working if they wanted a local sidebar. Otherwise, the baby is coming in October and my brain will be sleep-deprived and mushy.

My local parenting magazine just switched editors, so I submitted my Christmas piece, which she liked, AND my last two pieces (Birthday piece and Moms Making Money reprint). She likes them both!

Then she wanted to know if I was willing to take on assignments. I figured my husband would be against it, but he said go for it! He said it can't take any more time than the year-long e-book project (it's only been 3 months!).

Taking on assignments is a great gig if you can get it because generally you don't have to come up with the idea! You're given the idea, the parameters, etc. and you just run with it!

Wish me luck!

The Call of Writing

2009-07-05T07:00:00.001-07:00

Don't you hate how writing always calls you? You know you should be stripping wallpaper or playing catch with your son or doing the mound of dishes or making dinner or taking a shower, but ...

... the writing calls to you. An idea comes that you HAVE to write down. You glance at your growing stack of papers ("ideas") and wonder when you'll ever have the time to organize them, let alone actually WRITE about them.

Balance is hard to find. I guess the best advice (which I don't actually follow) is to play with your kids first (fill those love tanks!!!!), do your chores, THEN write.

This is hard for me because sometimes when I'm available for the kids, they are doing something else and don't want me involved at that moment. So I sneak in writing when I can and fill the rest of the day with kids and house.

How do you tell Writing to shut up and handle your responsibilities like a big girl or boy?

Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines

2009-06-24T13:58:00.001-07:00

I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I started the writer’s guidelines ebook and database. So far I’ve spent 31 hours on it and am maybe half done. I just want it to be really good; really helpful; something I would buy.

Thirty-one hours used to not even be a full work week for me; now it’s hard to squeeze in a couple of hours a day to work on an ebook.

Women who have dreams of working from home after their baby is born are in for a rude awakening. You have to do a lot to make that work, no matter how old the kid is. Tiny babies take lots of physical work, even though they sleep a lot. Sure, you get long stretches of time to work (hopefully) while the kids sleeps, but you never know when you’ll be interrupted.

Toddlers pose another issue because they are into EVERYTHING. All of a sudden the house is a wreck and you can’t believe how fast the kid turned into a Human Tornado.

And if you homeschool … jeez, you’ve got the education of your children on your shoulders! Plus laundry, dishes, meals, the occasional shower, errands, social crap, and so on.

So, WAHMs with kids underfoot, keep going. You’ll reach your goals. (A little slower than other moms, but you’ll reach them!)

Happy 8th Birthday to my oldest son, Joel!

How I Published My E-book

2009-06-10T07:12:00.001-07:00

Notice how the title isn’t How TO??? That’s because I know my way isn’t the only or best way. It’s just how I personally did it. If you’re asking, “Who freaking cares, Kerrie?”, then you are not someone who has been e-mailing me asking me how to do an e-book.

1. Months ago I bought FishMama’s Guide to Cooking With Kids because I’m always looking for things to cook and for the patience to cook with my kids. It was nice to be able to save it to my computer so I could print it out later or refer to it when I needed to.

2. Then an idea came to me when I was reading Writer’s Digest. The short blurb was about writing short humor books that people buy at the checkout counter at bookstores. I joked to my husband that I could do one on how to be a lazy mom.

3. The idea festered, so I looked online for e-book publishing info. There was too much with not enough real information. Everything seemed to lead to buying an expensive e-book about publishing an e-book AND buying expensive software. It can’t be that hard, I thought. Plus I’m broke, so I have to find a way to do this cheap.

4. Before I even had a few pages of the e-book written, I had a cover idea, so I whipped that up in PowerPoint, then starting working on page layouts. I didn’t want to steal anyone else’s layout ideas, so I just kept it simple and colorful.

5. I talked to my husband, the Engineer. He said it was easy to convert something to a PDF file from PowerPoint, that he has something called Primo PDF on his laptop. This is something free you can download …

6. Decided to sell it for a measly 2 bucks since “2-buck e-book” sounds good. The next will retail for $99 like many other e-books. NOT.

7. Had to get down to the business of writing. Was blowing off the e-book writing process when I got the opportunity to interview JA Konrath for my blogs. He gets 1,000 hits per day on his blog, so I was hoping to have my e-book uploaded to Payloadz (I chose this seller because FishMama used them and there are too many other crappy ones out there*) by the time his interview hit my blogs.

8. Had about 2 days to finish the darn thing up and paste it into PowerPoint and format it. I scoured pregnancy and baby-raising books for things I could make fun of or convert to the Lazy Mom’s way while simultaneously being a Walking Baby Oven and homeschooling my other sweet kids and caring for the toddler.

9. Converted the PowerPoint file to a PDF with the help of my husband (you just open the PowerPoint doc, then select Print, then Primo PDF, and it converts and renames for you), and uploaded it (the pdf file) to Payloadz. Everything is still FREE at this point.

10. There’s a bunch of stuff to fill out at the Payloadz site … book description, etc. Make sure you have a PayPal account first, and know they’ll take a fee out for every e-book transaction). I guessed on the “affiliate fee” stuff … I assumed that was the amount I’d give someone for selling my e-book on their site, so I just popped in 10 cents, but have since upped it to 75. I now realize it someone is selling my book from their site, they should get close to half of what I’m getting.

11. Added the link (not the unhelpful code Payloadz gave me; instead I went to the Payloadz Store like I was going to buy my own book, then used THAT link) to my blogs and whipped up a blog post about the e-book. Made sure the link worked in case anyone wants to buy the e-book.

12. Sold about a dozen. Didn’t have the time to market it like crazy, but it’s never too late.

*If an e-book seller web site has typos, looks unprofessional, gives you pop-ups and says they may NEVER get your book uploaded, close that page, friend.

More on Priorities

2009-06-07T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote about priorities. One reader said she basically hangs out with her kids first.

I feel like a crap mom for not saying that first!

Really, though, they are a priority all darn day long! I'm never more than like 50 feet from them (unless Daddy takes them to the park), and all day long I deal with making more Koolaid, riding them to do their chores, making sure homeschooling is happening, making sure food is filling bellies, setting up social opps for them, going to the pool, to the park, to the indoor play area, and on and on and on.

I started a timekeeping log and only worked about 50 hours in May ... and felt wiped out. How crazy is that?

Priorities

2009-06-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

I had a self-imposed deadline of May 31 for the writer’s guidelines e-book, which got pushed aside for a sales letter and manual project. Now my new deadline is my birthday, which is June 19.

I needed to get out 30 submissions to parenting pubs by the end of May also, which I did, with a zero pay rate (I placed one for free, though). It was one reprint I sent out 30 places, so it was kind of cheating since I wrote nothing new.

I have to make sure I keep up with posting on my main blog. But then ideas keep coming up to put on THIS blog.

I’d love to get some of my writing samples popped into my author site so someday I can direct editors THERE instead of sending them one little thing at a time.

I keep coming across people who NEED to read my unfinished essay about how the family bed does indeed end if you got it started in the first place.

I got a couple of new titles put onto Helium, but I can’t find the time to WRITE them.

Should I prioritize by what might make me the most money? Or by what I love to do? Or by my self-imposed deadlines?

How do you prioritize all your writing projects? Or do you go off half-assed and schizophrenic like me, working on things as you think about them?

Bad Writer Mommy

2009-05-18T07:50:00.000-07:00

In submitting about 40 of my article Moms Making Money (no paid leads; I gave it away for free as a 5-parter to one publication so I could have a credit on my resume!), I stumbled upon a guy who publishes a magazine AND has a side biz he needed my help on. It involved a sales letter, some Web writing and a marketing manual. I was honest with him about my limited experience and how "sales letter" made my butt cheeks clench up, but told him I'd give it a shot and would come cheap.

Whaddya know? It worked out! With my husband's help, we wrote a sales letter he LOVED, a table of contents for the manual he loved, and now I'm working on the Web stuff.

So I told my son this morning, "I'm going to be a Bad Writer Mommy today working on the laptop because I have a deadline of one week. But tomorrow I will be a Good Mommy and will take you all to the fish hatchery and the dam and to be with your grandma and great aunt."

It all evens out, right?

I'm Such a Tease

2009-05-05T12:53:00.001-07:00

I tell you I'm leaving, and then I keep coming back! Just had to tell you I'm using every spare moment to work on the "Get Published in Regional Parenting Magazines ... Over and Over" e-book. The goal is to have it done by the end of May ... a great resource I wish I'd had when I was just started to submit to the little parenting pubs.

I'll keep you posted! Keep following!

How to Get Published in a Local Parenting Magazine

2009-04-28T02:45:00.000-07:00

Here's my Bukisa article on How to Get Published in a Local Parenting Magazine, since I get asked all the time.

An Answer to an Email from Jennifer

2009-04-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

hey there! i'm glad you wrote me and glad you're enjoying the blog. i'm not sure if i'm doing things the correct way as far as getting published since sometimes i can send something out to 100 places and hear back from ONE and sometimes from FIVE. not sure if it depends on the article, the need of the editor or my writing (i have a lot to learn).

i send completed articles b/c i don't have internet access during the week and can't be going back and forth with an editor about what they want. also, the small locals (you get paid $25-50 instead of hundreds with Parents or Parenting or similar) usually want the entire submission. i did this with something to family circle recently and regretted it (1. because i sent a holiday piece in march and 2. because i should've sent a nice query instead of the whole piece).

small locals: Carolina Parent, Kansas City Parent, etc. ... much easier to break into first.

if you have an excellent piece, go for the biggies ... they are hard to find contact info for sometimes, though, or else they'd be inundated with queries. best bet sometimes would be to just mail your masterpiece to the biggies with a SASE so you may at least get a personal rejection, which to me would be better than not hearing anything, like the locals do.

sometimes, though, an editor will say, "i like this, but could you make it local ... find me local meal prep stores and local meal delivery companies and talk about them a little." and i usually have plenty of time to work on that and get it in.

the thing is: if i could make EVERY piece local somehow, i'd have more success. but i don't have the time right now for that, so i go general and THEN i figure if they like the article they can ask me to do more with it.

always talk money right when you get a gig or you could get messed over!

let me know if you need anything else. i'm still learning, too! i have lots of writing mistakes i've made over at motherwriter.blogspot.com.

i'm working on an ebook with all the local parenting mags' info ... over 100. it took me forever to collect all the info and i'd love to put it all together to save people time!

Misspelling

2009-04-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, I can't shut the blog down because I keep making juicy mistakes!

Last night I sent out about FORTY submissions of the same article. This morning I get a message from one of the editors. It basically said good article (but they don't want it obviously!), but that I misspelled pinata in one place.

Fabulous.

AND now that I've gone back to check it out, I CAN'T FIND THE MISSPELLING. What the hell is the editor smoking???????? All I can figure out is the the little tilda isn't above the "n" in one of the PINATAS. Big deal.

So this isn't my mistake, but theirs.

Parenting Publication Writer's Guidelines e-book

2009-04-07T14:35:00.000-07:00

What if I put together a cheap e-book that contained my 100+ contacts for local parenting pubs so you would save the HOURS I spent gathering this information? Would you buy it? What would you call it?

Titles:
*Mother Writer's 101 Parenting Publication Contacts and Guidelines
*Info for 101 Parenting Publications
*Crap, coming up with a title is harder than I thought

*don't forget to read the post below about how I merged blogs and this one is supposed to be defunct now, but i just keep finding material for it!

Merging Blogs

2009-04-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

I have met my breaking point. I am officially admitting that I am a human being and that I have limitations. Instead of trying to manage two different blogs (one regular and one about writing), I’m merging them. I’m hoping this gives me more time to write for publication and to stare in amazement at my kids.

And to stop making crazy mistakes, like almost getting myself sued because I didn’t Google book titles and webs sites before I named my e-book. And to attempt to stop offending people SO badly (although I’ll still offend a little bit, I can promise you that).

If you have an e-mail subscription to Mother Writer, please re-sign up at The Kerrie Show on the right-hand side. If you get an e-mail from The Kerrie Show that is about writing and makes you yawn, just delete it and check out tomorrow’s post. If you’re a writer and get a post about my kid’s snotty nose, just move on.

This is certainly not a tightly focused blog … it’s definitely a variety blog. I hope you get a good laugh now and then or maybe even some writing inspiration. Look for lots of Pissy Pregnancy stories and Writer’s Guidelines, as well as excerpts from my newly titled “The Laid-Back Mom’s Parenting Guidebook”.

“The Laid-Back Mom’s Parenting Guidebook” E-book Excerpt

2009-04-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I had to change the name of the e-book so I wouldn't get sued. I'm still working on changing the entire .pdf file and cover and uploading the whole thing to Payloadz again. That'll teach me.

From the section called Laid-Back Pregnancy:

SEAFOOD
This frustrates me to no end. I’m too lazy to keep track of what kind of seafood I am “allowed” to eat so I don’t end up with a 4-headed baby. If I were smart instead of laid-back, I wouldn’t eat ANY fish, seeing as how our oceans and rivers are used as toxic waste dumps more often than we will ever know. But I’ve enjoyed shrimp, canned tuna, salmon and assorted other ocean fish during every one of my 4 pregnancies, and my kids seem okay … so far.

*crappity crap ... having trouble uploading the goofy pic of my kids with freaky-eyed sunglasses on so they look all crazy and not normal!

Family Circle Query

2009-04-03T01:00:00.000-07:00

“Dear Ms. XXX:

Ah, the universal problem of where to go on Christmas Day and who to spend the holidays with. And it only gets more difficult when you have kids. Many new (and not-so-new) parents find themselves feeling pulled in too many different directions during a time that is already stressful.

My article (included below as text), “8 Ways to a More Peaceful Christmas”, aims to help solve this dilemma.

I have been published in several local parenting publications, including Family Time (Chicago), Georgia Family, Columbus Parent, Kansas City Parent, Montgomery Parents and Ithaca Child and would be honored to have my article appear in Family Circle.

I look forward to hearing from you!”

*Even though it’s pretty self-explanatory, I should have added that it’s for the December issue, especially since I jumped the gun so bad and sent this query in MARCH! What a rookie!

Please, critique my query so it’ll be better for the next place I send it!

I Need Your Help!

2009-04-01T02:09:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a piece about having cheap and simple kid birthday parties and need some quotes from "real" moms who have:

1. had a cheap and simple party

and/or

2. had an expensive, off-site party and regret spending the money

You can leave me a comment (make sure you put your e-mail address in the comment box down near username) or email me at mommykerrie@yahoo.com. Leave me your city and state in case I use your quote, please!

Thanks for your help!

I Sent an Article to Family Circle …

2009-04-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

… and then I realized I probably should’ve written a tightly focused query and sent THAT instead of the whole flippin’ article like I send to the local parenting publications.

I’m sure Family Circle can smell a non-professional writer over the e-mail waves.

Anyway, after being rejected by Brain,Child and Mothering, I figured I was ready for a rejection from a biggie like Family Circle.

The thing is, I’m not used to doing real journalistic pieces. Meaning: things that take a lot of research. I tend to write what I know and then fill in the blanks from there with Internet research and stuff from books.

What I need to do it work on getting interviews with authors of books I’m quoting and find “experts” for quotes. I know the book Writer Mama discussed finding experts … now, where is that book in my house?

Writer’s Digest Blogger Contest

2009-03-31T01:00:00.000-07:00

Last month Writer’s Digest teased me in the Table of Contents with a “Blogger Contest.” I got all excited and turned to that page first.

Turns out you need to be pursuing an MFA (Masters degree in Fine Arts). Screw that!

How about a Mom Writer/Blogger Contest? What’s a measly MFA compared to writing AND blogging while parenting?

And it wouldn’t be open to FATHERS, either. They’re different. They don’t gestate and they don’t lactate (or, from the movie Juno, “milktate”). And their hormones don’t go all freaky at least once a month. Let’s face it: even if a woman adopts, she’s still expected to take on most of the childcare responsibilities.

Let’s take Writer’s Digest by storm! They’ve needed a Mom Writer column for a long damn time! My Associate of Arts degree from Johnson County Community College and my 4 kids’ birth certificates ought to suffice.

A Day of Rest

2009-03-29T01:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, right. Had you goin’ there for a minute, didn’t I?

Right after church a couple of weeks ago I picked up and vacuumed the house as fast as I could. I explained to my husband that the house would then get progressively more trashed as the next few days wore on due to the fact that I would be working on my e-book.

My rationale was to finish the e-book and have it ready to sell BEFORE my interview with J.A. Konrath posted on both of my blogs.

Konrath gets like 1,000 hits per day, so I figure there must be some moms in there who are curious about what it’s like to be a Lazy Mom.

The house got pretty messy for a couple of days, but I accomplished an actual goal, which is a big deal for someone like me who always starts things but never finishes them.

And no, I don’t have some Writing Master Plan … I’m just trucking along posting on the blogs, sending out articles to the local parenting pubs, trying to find time to work on that essay for Mothering and always considering writing a memoir-ish thing for my kids about my first years of mothering that I could self-publish 10 copies of.

No deadlines, though. The plan is to finish this stuff before I die. You know how it goes.

My Writing Portfolio

2009-03-27T01:00:00.000-07:00

I hate the word PORTFOLIO, but I have one now, I suppose. I always did, back from when I wrote letters for nonprofits and did my little published pieces.

But now I’m adding to this binder, and it’s exciting. I have page protectors in a 3-ring binder, and I slip in my tearsheets or entire publications. One I wrote for recently is an oversize pub, so I just took out my article and folded it over.

Ah, the problems we writers have.

Keep plugging away, fellow writers. It’s a lot of work and success can come very slowly, but if you do what you love it will all fall into place.

How do you stay organized?

Always Talk Money

2009-03-25T01:00:00.000-07:00

On March 7th I found two great things in my mailbox:

1. A tearsheet and a check for $30 from a local parenting publication.

2. The March issue of another local parenting publication in which my article appeared.

Where’s the check for the other article, you ask? Well, we never really discussed my rates or theirs. So I sent off a quick email asking what their rates usually are, letting the editor know I’m not trying to get rich and that I’m thrilled to be published in their magazine. She wrote back quickly to say they usually pay 10 cents per word. I ran to my computer to check the word count on what I’d sent them. This was an article I custom-made for this publication and then luckily was able to sell to other pubs before it became a reprint. This article was over 1,000 words. Does that mean a check for $100 is coming my way?

No, because we hadn’t discussed it first. So I did the nice thing and gave it to them for half off, which still seemed like a lot of money to the editor. I don’t know why she thought I’d write a custom-made article for them for FREE.

The lesson: Always talk money upfront. If someone says they want your article or want you to write one, ask their rates or give them yours if you feel comfortable.

Response Time

2009-03-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

You know how I’ve always said that if you don’t hear back from a local parenting pub editor either immediately or within a week, you can forget about it?

Well, forget about THAT.

The other day I got an acceptance on a reprint I sent TWO MONTHS AGO. I’ve been jumping the gun and sending the same piece in the same region if I’m not hearing back within like TWO WEEKS. I’m glad there are no other pubs in this region or I’d have some ‘splaining to do.

Still, if I HAD been accepted already by someone else in the region, I would’ve had to have said something like, “I’m sorry, but when I didn’t hear back from you within 30 days, I assumed you did not want to publish my piece, and [enter competitor name here] will be publishing it in their May issue. If you would like to offer me 1 million dollars, I can easily yank my piece from your competitor, though.”

Today.com Actually Paid Me

2009-03-21T01:00:00.000-07:00

I was skeptical, folks. Get paid to gripe in a blog that maybe nobody would ever see?

Last month I actually got a check in the mail from Today.com for $61.42. When it wouldn’t deposit through my ATM, I was afraid I’d been scammed. But it seems to have gone through at my bank the old-fashioned way.

Here’s the thing about Today.com, though. You sign up for your first blog based on these terms: you write 100 words per day, you don’t publish it anywhere else, they take quite a while to review all your posts, and you get paid $1 per post. You can even post-date them so you’re popping in 30 at once. So I got paid for 2 months’ worth of blogging plus the page views ($1.42 … woo hoo).

Then I signed up for a 2nd blog and got approved, but never started on it because they changed the terms on the first one. The new terms are something like $2 per 1,000 page views. Now, maybe if my main blog (TheKerrieShow.com) or this blog drew 1,000 visitors per day, then they might go check out my KerriePeeves.today.com and I might make a measly few bucks a month.

Except that since I stopped daily blogging they demolished my Today.com blog. Oh well.

Has anyone else done Today.com? What’s your experience been?

Congratulations!!!

2009-03-20T01:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Annie, who won the copy of The Writer Mama!

Please Buy My 2-Buck E-Book

2009-03-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

It’s finally here … the fabulous First Edition of my 2-buck e-book called “The Lazy Mom’s Guide to Life: A Relaxed Approach to Parenting.” If you’re looking for an actual parenting guide such as Dr. Spock or Dr. Sears would write, you are out of luck, friends. If you are looking for a few laughs, you got ’em.

Look, in this economy I’m not gonna take all your money. I worked hard on this thing, but not hard enough to send it to a publisher. I think 2 bucks is a reasonable price for this 32-page humorous e-book which has gotten rave reviews from the 2 people who have bought it.

If you love it, tell your friends (if you are a fellow bloggy-type person, you could do an e-book review or I’d be happy to do an interview with you!). If you hate it, all I ask is that you keep quiet. Just kidding … I’m a sucker for some good criticism.

Here’s the link or you can click on the picture to the left. Thanks in advance for your support of my fledgling writing career!

Query Statistics to Date

2009-03-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

December was a good month because I only sent out 31 queries. I got 3 accepted (1 of them 2 months later), for a total of about 10% accepted.

January wasn’t so great because I over-queried. I got 3 that will be published and 4 maybes. And 3 actual rejections, which means at least they received it and looked it over. My success rate that month was 2%.

February I was newly pregnant and little bit lazy. I only queried 26 and heard back from ZERO by mid-March. Of course, half of the queries I sent were this thing I called an “essay” which was more like a gripefest.

I’m not telling you all this to brag. I’m telling you this to show you that some places will love your piece and some places won’t. Some may not contact you for a long time.

My point is this: KEEP AT IT. You will want to give up. You will want to pitch all your sample copies and send an email to everyone in your Writing Contacts that you are done writing forever. Just keep going.

Take a break, wait for a good idea, research it and keep going.

The Writer Mama Two-Year Anniversary Blog Tour Giveaway!

2009-03-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember the book review I did of Writer Mama. Today the author, Christina Katz, is offering a free copy (just leave a comment on this blog -- details below -- and I'll draw a name soon)!

The Writer Mama Two-Year Anniversary Blog Tour Giveaway! (Catch up on the past posts here: http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/)

Post #15: Celebrate book-pitching milestones!

Before we move on to talking about the book-writing process, I want to remind everyone (including myself) how important it is to celebrate every step of the way along the book writing process. Writing a book for traditional publication is a huge deal. It’s incredibly challenging to get to this point and if you don’t celebrate your small successes along the way, they will pass too quickly. Here’s a quick list of ideas that lend themselves to celebrations with supportive family and writer friends:

Warm up celebrations (worth a latte at Starbucks or some equivalent):

1. You complete the book proposal

2. You submit the book query or pitch the book concept live

3. You are asked to submit your complete proposal after the query/pitch

4. You receive an offer for representation (from an agent) or a verbal offer to publish the book (from a publisher)

5. You receive a written offer for representation or publication in the form of a contract

6. You complete and return the contract

7. You receive your fully executed contract copy for your files

At this point you are ready for a BIG celebration: (Worth a lunch or dinner out with your biggest cheerleaders or some equivalent). The thing is, you will likely start working on your book-writing before you receive your fully executed contract simply because you want to keep moving forward on your book in order to hit your deadline. So don’t get a deal and stop working. This is the kiss of death for hitting your first deadline. Books are a lot more work than most writers (and certainly readers) realize.

So figure out when it makes the most sense for you to have your BIG celebration. Some people feel a contract isn’t a contract until it’s signed and they are holding it in their hands (and this is true). But other folks, like myself, tend to favor back patting when the actual good news comes rather than waiting until later. Trust me on this—you’ll be up to your neck in book-writing and then book-promoting deadlines from the time you get the green light until a couple years after your book comes out.

I hope you’ll get out there and celebrate. Enjoy. You've earned it!

Today's Book Drawing:
To enter to win a signed, numbered copy of Writer Mama, answer the following question in this blog's comments:

If you got a book deal today, who would you call on to be part of your team of confidantes? What strengths would they bring to the table?

Thanks for participating! Only US residents, or folks with a US mailing address can participate in the drawing. Please only enter once per day.

Where will the drawing be tomorrow? Visit http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/ to continue reading the rest of the Writer Mama story throughout March 2009!

Writer Mama, How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids by Christina Katz (Writer's Digest Books 2007)Kids change your life, but they don't necessarily have to end your career. Stay-at-home moms will love this handy guide to rearing a successful writing career while raising their children. The busy mom's guide to writing life, this book gives stay-at-moms the encouragement and advice they need including everything from getting started and finding ideas to actually finding time to do the work - something not easy to do with the pitter-patter of little feet. With advice on how to network and form a a business, this nurturing guide covers everything a writer mama needs to succeed at her second job

The World of eBooks

2009-03-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

How do you punctuate ebooks? Ebook? eBook? E-book?

Who cares? I’m writing one. Why not? If everyone else jumped off a bridge, so would I, right? No!

I had an idea for a little humor book but don’t want to mess with a traditional publisher … takes too much time and rejection. So I’ll be my own publisher.

LifeasMOM.com has a couple … one about Cooking With Kids and one about cool Birthday Cakes. Mrs. Hannigan has one called How to Write Nasty Letters.

I’m not quite sure how to go about doing it, so I’m doing it in Word, then popping it into PowerPoint to make the cover and design the pages.

Then I need to beg my husband to help me figure out how to convert the PowerPoint slideshow into an Acrobat pdf file that can be uploaded to Payloadz and sold for $2 (I call it my 2-buck E-book). I’m not looking to get rich, here. I’m looking to get my name out there as someone who can maybe write a decent line of humor here and there.

At the rate I’m going, I’ll be self-publishing this e-book sometime in 2012. With no editor crawling my butt with a deadline, what’s a mom to do?

Author Interview: J.A. Konrath writing as Jack Kilborn

2009-03-11T01:00:00.001-07:00

I’ve been hearing about Joe Konrath for years. He wrote some entertaining articles in Writer’s Digest, and I knew he’d written some great, humorous mysteries with the character Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels. But, man, I didn’t realize he’d written SIX in this series and crossed over to horror as well. I’m grabbing his latest book, “Afraid”, for my husband.

I thought it’d be fun to interview the guy. Rather than freak him out by giving him a tinkle on the telly (he’d hear the 4 squealing kids and my morning-sickness retching in the background), I decided to give the guy a break and just do an e-mail interview to feature on my little bloggies. Enjoy.

Queen Kerrie: Why are you using a different author name with this book?
JAK: J.A. Konrath writes funny mysteries with some scary parts. Jack Kilborn writes all scary parts. To speak in marketing terms, they're different brands, so they should have different names.

Moi: What do you wear and eat when you write?
Famous Writer Dude: In all seriousness, I write in my underwear. :) I have a variety of boxer shorts with cartoons and funny slogans. The pair I'm currently wearing say, "Make me an offer I can't refuse." Spongebob is another fave. In CHERRY BOMB, my sixth Jack Daniels book coming out in July, I have a character who is tied up wearing nothing but Duff Beer boxers -- that's the brew Homer drinks on The Simpsons. While I wrote that scene, I was in my Duff Beer boxers. Every time my son brings friends over, I manage to throw on some jeans and a tee. But during the day I have the house to myself, so clothing is optional. This is probably waaaaaay more than your readers wanted or needed to know, so I'm going to retcon the whole topic. When I write I wear a black Armani tuxedo.

Me: What do you do when you don't feel like writing something difficult ... do the dishes, take a walk, prank call a friend, mess around on Twitter or Facebook?
Joe: I'm so attached to my computer I have a chamber pot under my desk. I'm always answering e-mail, blogging, or replying to someone on some social network. Whenever I get stuck in a story, distraction is always a mouse click away. Though I do enjoy prank calling those "Everything Is One Dollar" stores, then repeatedly asking how much certain items cost. After the eighth or ninth time, the clerks think it's funny, I bet.

Miss K: How do you do laundry? Cram it all in or sort?
Joey K: I'm a crammer, and my wife hates it. Unless it's a red sweater, there is no reason towels can't share washer space with socks and jeans. Are there actually men who sort?

*Note from Kerrie: I am a crammer, while my husband used to be a sorter before I converted him. We suck it up and deal with gray socks that used to be white.

Constantly Pregnant Chick: How much time do you devote to writing per day?
Father of a Son: When I'm on a deadline, fourteen hours a day isn't unusual. In between books, it depends what I'm working on. I do a lot of short stories, so I'm often playing with one or two. But weeks can go by without me writing anything creative, except from my daily Twitter joke. Here are some of my daily Twitter jokes:

-- I haven't learned a thing in hypnotism class, and it costs $300 an hour. But for some reason I just signed up for six more sessions.

-- I've talked to dozens of people, but nobody wants to invest in my all natural "green" toilet paper substitute; the washable pooper cactus.

-- My wife is demanding a romantic getaway this Valentine’s Day, but she refuses to tell me whom she's going with.

-- You have to watch out for bad cholesterol. The other day, I was eating a pizza, and some bad cholesterol stole my car.

-- I missed mime class, because I was practicing at home and got stuck in an imaginary box.

-- Few things are as crucial, decisive, exigent, foremost, imperative, meaningful, necessary, relevant, salient, and vital, as the synonym.

-- Sex is great exercise, but I probably need more exercise than just four minutes a month.

There are more than two hundred other gems like this at www.twitter.com/jakonrath.

I really need to get away from the computer, I think.

Kurious Kerrie: How many books have you published? (In hindsight, I realize there ARE dumb questions, as I could’ve easily Googled this).
Funny Guy: The Jack Daniels series, in order, is comprised of WHISKEY SOUR, BLOODY MARY, RUSTY NAIL, DIRTY MARTINI, FUZZY NAVEL, CHERRY BOMB. I also edited the hitman anthology THESE GUNS FOR HIRE. AFRAID, under the Jack Kilborn moniker, comes out at the end of March. Kilborn also wrote TRAPPED, coming out later this year. These are both really, really scary, so only brave people should attempt to read them. Of course, there are no braver people on the planet than mothers, so I think your readers can handle these with no problem.

On my website, www.jakonrath.com, I have dozens of published short stories and three unpublished novels that people can read for free. I also have a scary flash game for AFRAID.

Kooky Homeschooler: How many articles have you had published?
Super Rich Writer Man: I've been in Writer's Digest a bunch of times. I lost count how many. As for short stories, I've done more than sixty. One of my current faves is a werewolf novella in WOLFSBANE & MISTLETOE, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner. Lots of people seem to like that story. It's a funny Christmas/shapeshifter/romance/psychotic Santa tale, which are really popular these days.

Chocolate Lover: Do you recommend an author book tour?
Sarcastic Guy: Only to authors.

Mrs. McLoughlin: Who is your favorite author?
Mr. Konrath: My favorite novel is THE JUDAS GOAT by Robert B. Parker. That got me into writing mysteries. I just blurbed a terrific horror book by someone named Jack Kilborn with the quote: "What an amazing debut. I wish I'd written this." I think the book is called AFRAID. Everyone should run out and buy thirty copies.

Final Question Asker: Do you think sites like MySpace, Twitter and Facebook have helped broaden your fan base?
Long-Suffering Interviewee: Yes. Never before in history have authors been able to reach out and connect with their readers in such a big, and instantaneous, way. Of course, the secret isn't befriending people who are looking for you. The secret is to befriend people who find you when they're looking for someone else. For example, many of your blog readers probably had no idea who I was. Those who managed to wade through this interview now know me. Maybe a few of them will check out my books. That's the key to broadening your fanbase. And that's why I'm so happy you had me here today. Thanks! :)

You are very welcome, Joe! Yes, my blog readers are very beautiful and intelligent, so I’m sure they’ll be checking out your writing! Thanks for answering my often-inane questions! You rock. Knug (knuckle hug).

JAKonrath.com
jakonrath.blogspot.com
myspace.com/jakonrath

No Attachments

2009-03-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that attachments in e-mails often go straight to Spam, so editors never see your submission. I’ve been sending all my articles as both attachments and text-in-body of e-mail, plus with one article I often send along a relevant photo they can use with the piece.

I would think an editor would check their Spam for writing gold (I know I would check it!), especially if the subject line says “article” or “submission” or “writing gold.”

Still, I sent out 9 reprints last month only in the body of the email just to be safe. I also did not mention the name of the pub so I wouldn’t screw that up. I did address the editor by name, so extra points for me!

I also told them I’d be happy to localize the story for them and could get it back to them by the weekend. Usually I just say I’ll add a local slant, but this time I got more specific.

On the right side of this blog there is a list of places I’ve been published or have yet-to-be published but have actually sold a piece. We’ll see how quickly that list grows. Hmmm. I feel like a cook trying different ingredients in a recipe.

Come back in two days for my interview with author J.A. Konrath, writing as Jack Kilborn with his latest novel.

Custom Domain

2009-03-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

I must be serious about my writing now if I spent a whopping 10 bucks on a custom domain name for my blog. Blogger makes it easy … you can buy the custom domain name from them for only $10. It just seems more professional to me to have my blog be TheKerrieShow.com rather than TheKerrieShow.blogspot.com Less cumbersome.

Just wanted you to know you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a domain name if all you want is a simple site.

Changing Course Part 3

2009-03-05T01:00:00.000-08:00

I know I should be working on essays, but my pregnant brain isn’t working in that way these days. Maybe in the next trimester.

Instead I came up with a (hopefully) good idea for the local parenting pubs, of which there are like 200!

BUT … I can’t make it general, so I’ll have to research every city I send this piece to and tailor it to each place.

I’m starting with the pubs who have already published me (or are supposed to be publishing me in March and April).

If I localize it to them and they like it, then I will put in the time to research other cities (using only pubs for which I have a sample copy!!!) and query to them.

My hope is that I’ll get more published if I take it local from the start. Instead of spending hours sending e-mail queries to pubs (many of which I don’t even know if they publish my kind of stuff, if they are solely on-line, etc.), I’ll spend a few extra minutes on each place and hopefully get more acceptances that way.

Time to get un-lazy. So hard for me.

Kerrie’s Lazy Award-Winning Chili Recipe

2009-03-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

This is a link to one of my eHow “articles," which I do from time to time on my other blog. This one is how to make my Award-Winning Chili. What kind of award, you ask? Something from Food Network or the Chili Society of America?

Nah. After 11 years I finally got to enter Aron’s company’s chili cook-off. I got tired of hearing about how extremely hot and ulcer-creating everyone’s chili was … like almost too hot to even eat! My chili has always been pretty mild (you can add onions and hot sauce to taste later, but I don’t need my kids sweating while they eat dinner and blowing their pants off in the middle of the night).

Somehow I got 7th place out of 15 in the category of Unique … huh? I shoulda been like last place on that one. But I also got 3rd place for Flavor! Yippah! Aron made this awesome chili with ground chuck that was middle-of-the-road on all the award categories, which I don’t get. I think the contest was fixed and that payoffs were involved.

I think Mother Writers need an easy recipe so they can have more time to write, so here’s the link (just click on the highlighted word "link" – for you blogtards).

Also, I always thought my niche would be something to do with Attachment Parenting … I’m such an “expert” in that. But recently I’m finding out I don’t really feel so much like an expert at parenting as much as an expert at LAZY. The lazier I can do things, the more time I have to write, homeschool, play with my kids, look longingly into my husband’s eyes (okay, let’s not get carried away).

So go make some chili and WRITE.

Blogs to Books

2009-03-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

This topic fascinates me and is NOT why I started blogging, although it would be a nice turn of events. I blog to shed my wisdom upon the world (haha). No, really, I blog to get the writing ideas going, etc. And recently it turns out that my family thinks I blog just to be rude and thoughtless when I’m really just processing things (and if they won’t listen to me in person, why shouldn’t I put it in Bloggy World to try to shake them into understanding???)

Here’s how Dawn Meehan over at Because I Said So got started … (blogotards, click on the words Dawn Meehan).

An ebay listing? Are you kidding me? Wow. You just never know. And that is just ONE success story.

Feel free to add other blogs to books success stories you know of (like Dooce.com).

EssayLand

2009-02-27T01:00:00.000-08:00

In the process of collecting sample copies and writer’s guidelines and rejections, it occurred to me that maybe I’m an essay kind of gal. I do well with short and humorous. I have many blog posts from The Kerrie Show that I could craft into a 500-word essay for a bunch of local parenting magazines.

But which one to choose? Hmmm, why not RECYCLE yet again?

So I took that opinion piece I did for my local paper about how parents doing their kids’ fundraising for them annoys me … and softened it a bit. Took out some of the barking rhetorical questions and the part where I rag on private schools having no business doing fundraisers in the first place and sent it out to the 11 mags I knew for a fact publish short essays.

At this point I’m not even sure if what I sent is actually an essay. We’ll see if the rejections (or worse, non-response) will tell me where to go next. The way things have been going, a pub will ask me to re-work the darn thing as an actual long article with a 1-day deadline. But it’s a job!

Oh, and those of you writing for money to pay bills, etc., shield your eyes for this next part. In my email query, I put that since this is basically a reprint, I’m offering it for $15. Tacky? Stupid? Hey, if it gets me published and drives an agent to my blog …

… then I’m clearly dreaming and need to wake the hell up!

Writing With a Basketball Team to Care For

2009-02-25T01:00:00.000-08:00

So I joined Weight Watchers and was losing weight AND my first post in my The Kerrie Show blog series “Weight Loss Mondays” was going to be showing up soon. And my house was relatively picked up most of the time. And my brain was working. And I was writing. And I was spending more time playing with and chasing around the kids. And Eva is walking. And homeschooling was going great, including field trips.

And … I’m having me a baby in October. Around October 9, to be exact.

And we’re all jumping-up-and-down excited. We’re tired, busy, and HAPPY.

Bring on the pukes, the exhaustion, the 25-pound weight gain. I can handle it. I am NOT stopping my writing. I plan to write through the bad and the good. I will USE it in my CRAFT (ha!).

This oughta be good!!!

Writing After Chores

2009-02-23T01:00:00.000-08:00

Don’t I teach my kids that they can have good things after they homeschool or do their chores?

So why do I think it’s okay for me to let dishes and laundry sit while I type on the computer or do stuff on the Internet?

I’m a horrible example!!!

But, as the working moms say, “I’m a better mom when I feel fulfilled.”

I Give Up!!!

2009-02-21T01:00:00.000-08:00

Recently I found more markets to pimp my 2 “feature”-ish articles out to and was emailing them. Sometimes I like to personalize them so they know I didn’t send one mass email out and blind carbon copy everyone. So I put something about, “I hope this will be a good fit for Mountain Home Magazine.” (I’ve changed the names of the pubs and editors to protect the innocent)

So I copy that and paste it into the next email and USUALLY (as in, when I’m not pregnant) change the name of the pub. Well, I sent 3 more before I noticed that I’d not changed the name of the pub.

Being an honest, I-like-to-make-it-right as quickly as possible so I can sleep at night kind of person, I immediately re-sent them with an apology, saying I am embarrassed and don’t usually make mistakes like that. Okay.

Then I notice I just sent an apology for messing up royally ONCE to MISTER Smith with MRS. So-and-So’s name on the darn thing! I actually blushed and felt like a total moron.

So before calling it quits for the day (I shouted “I GIVE UP” into the air), I sent ONE LAST EMAIL to Mr. Smith and tried to make a funny. I told him my only excuse is that I’m pregnant and that I believe I’ll be hanging up my writing hat for the next 8 months.

I almost told him how great this would be for my writing mistakes blog.

Canadian Mistakes

2009-02-19T01:00:00.000-08:00

My mistakes span the globe!

Recently I found a Canadian parenting magazine on my mentor’s writing Web site. I sent them one of my articles about Moms Making Money. Afterward, I realized there’s a line in the article that says something like, “Google (your state)”.

I actually sent this to TWO Canadian parenting mags. And we all know they don’t have states in Canada … they have provinces.

Hopefully I gave someone a good laugh that day, eh.

It’s a Tough Job …

2009-02-17T01:00:00.000-08:00

… but somebody’s gotta do it.

I’m telling you, going through magazines for a “living” is pure torture (I put it in quotes because I make about 1/100th of what my husband makes, so it can hardly be called a living … more like a “calling” or a “hobby”). I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

Just kidding. It’s awesome and I love it.

Everybody gives me their used magazines. I go through them and save whole copies of potentially useful ones (or just the most recent copy or they’d overtake the house), or tear out pages of sections I could write something for. I should be keeping all the back issues to I don’t accidentally repeat something. I used to save all the Table of Contents, but that got to be one big mess.

Body+Soul (they need more stuff for parents), Redbook, Good Housekeeping (there’s a page each month written by a blogger!!!), Weight Watchers, Parents, Parenting, Mother Earth News, BackHome, BabyTalk, American Baby, Writer’s Digest, Real Simple (there’s a new Real Simple Family I need to grab), Mothering, Brain,Child, Family Circle, Midwest Living, Women’s Day, HomeSchool Enrichment.

Really, though, it’s not all fun. They are all so different. There are thousands out there. Including my local parenting pubs (like Kansas City Parent, San Diego Family, etc.), I have over 50 sample copies, and when my husband gets paid again I’m sending off for more (many of the small locals want you to pay about $2.50 for a copy or, at the very least, I send my 10x13 SASE and the postage ends up being about $3.00 total).

So there’s the record-keeping I like to do, in Outlook and Excel, to make life easier come Query Time. And there’s the physical filing of all the stuff I have. But it’s fun doing it at my own pace.

Just signed up to do Meals on Wheels again with the kids (they were bugging me to do it), so there goes another couple of hours a week, but at least for a good cause. Who cares if an article takes longer to write as long as I’m putting good karma out into the world? I’m confident it will all work out.

To Margaret

2009-02-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Just got a chance to go through Comments. THANKS for reading! You homeschool 3 kids and write? Yippee. And I see you are also a Gemini. Sounds like you need your own blog! You CAN do it. Just keep at it. It will come. Unfortunately, it takes time. I'd hung up my writing hat and thrown away all my stuff when I realized I wanted to do it again!

Changing Course, Part 2

2009-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

More on the evolution of my writing career (I almost put career in quotes, but realized that would be self-sabotaging???):

7. Decide I don’t have enough going on with homeschooling and mothering 4 little kids and also that I didn’t give my little reprint enough of a fighting chance and start sending it out like crazy, trying to leave no stone unturned. So far, 3 pubs have said they want it, and I had to re-write it with a local angle for 2.

8. One pub wanted to see what I did for Mother and Child Reunion, so I wrote the series as one article. Sold.

9. Another pub liked it but wanted me to add Freelancing as a job. Sold.

10. Get the bright idea to write something specifically for an upcoming issue. National Library Week is in April, so I pound out a little piece about how great the library is and why you should check it out with your kids. Just submitted a ton of those (55?). One pub wants it so far … no pay. It’s all good.

11. I have tons of sample copies, so why don’t I write something tailored to something larger, like BabyTalk or Parenting or Parents? Well, because it would take a long time, a lot of research and I’m a homeschooling mother of 4?!

12. I realize I could practically take some of my blog posts and turn them into humorous essays and submit them to the ¼ of the parenting pubs that print that sort of thing. Rather than mass-querying, I need to be more aware of what I am sending to each publication. I probably need to collect more sample copies, but that is a job in and of itself.

Also along the way, I became an eHow.com junkie (even though it’s pretty clear it’s all based on outside viewers clicking on advertising) and keep posting on Today.com in the hopes of getting paid someday (still pending; I’ll let you know), AND start a 2nd Today.com blog in the hopes of becoming RICH, RICH!!!!!!!!

Changing Course

2009-02-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

To recap, here’s the evolution of me as a writer (done in two parts, so as not to put you to sleep):

1. Submit series on how to make money with your kid on your hip to Mother and Child Reunion. Submit 4 articles, see them only online (which is great), am too chicken to ask for money. They are still online, 4 years later, and I never asked for money. I consider it a writing credit.

2. Submit article on stocking your pantry and freezer with meals to save time, money and sanity to Kansas City Parent. It runs in the January 2007 issue, I make $25 and am ecstatic.

3. Submit essay to New Beginnings (La Leche League’s magazine) on how much I love having my kids nap on me. It runs in the March/April 2007 issue, I get 2 free copies and am ecstatic again.

4. I stumble upon an article online about selling reprints and start trying to pimp out my Stock-up-Mentality article. I make many mistakes (no SASE, for one, and never checking my e-mail box is another), receive one kind rejection, and don’t hear from anyone else.

5. Get fired up about kids and fundraising, pound out a piece, submit it to my local newspaper and see it in print 6 months later. Pay = the satisfaction of my family knowing I can sort-of write.

6. Start blog in July of 2008 to get the writing juices flowing and get some ideas down. Start writing blog a few months later to chronicle the fun.

Come back in 2 measly days (or sign up for my e-mail version so you don’t have to remember) to find out the exciting conclusion of this fascinating story …

Word Count Mistakes

2009-02-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

With all these mistakes I’m making, you’d think I was dropped on my head several times as a baby. Or that I’m the homeschooling mother of 4 (and expecting again, which makes the brain cells go away for sure) who is already frazzled and trying to take on a freelance writing career (and now weight loss, as well!).

I decided to create a new Category in Outlook for my publications called Sample Copy, which means I have a copy of the magazine to refer to when I write an article. That way I can see if it will fit with the publication.

While adding the pubs I have sample copies of, I noticed that on a couple of the entries I had typed the guidelines. A couple said to keep the articles to 600-800 words, and I had just sent them each two articles that were about 900 and 1,000 words.

So the next time I got my hands on the Internet, I re-sent those puppies. I had made a shorter version of each article for one publication, so it was easy to customize it and make it local to send to each of the others I’d already sent to.

I sent a note in the email that basically said, “Sorry I was a dumbass. I have since comprehended your writer’s guidelines and am resubmitting each of my articles to fit your word count requirements.”

Launching a Writing Career … One Playdate at a Time

2009-02-09T06:24:00.000-08:00

Books and articles about writing will tell you that you need to find outside or inside childcare to get your writing done. They’ll tell you that you have to do it while your kid naps or while the others are at school.

So here I am, a homeschooling, cheap, holds-her-babies-for-naps, sleeps-next-to-them-at-night mother of 4 -- count ’em, FOUR -- kids telling you I do it differently. This may not work for you, but it’s what works for me.

I love to write when my kids have friends over. The other kids are like built-in babysitters. That sounds bad, I realize, so let me explain.

Usually we’ll have anywhere from 1 to 3 friends over. That’s enough to keep everyone happy. If you fight with one kid, you have several other choices. It’s like recess at my house quite often. It’s a playdate without any other parents, so I don’t need to socialize.

I make sure I have a pitcher of clear Koolaid out and I keep the cups in a drawer down low. I lay out some semi-healthy snacks. I put away all sharp objects and matches aaaaaand … THEY’RE OFF!

If they leave me alone for even 15 minutes (barring blood or fire, of course), I reward them by sitting out front to watch them ride bikes or take them to the park or library. It doesn’t sound like much time to write, but I’ve already taken notes on a piece of paper while nursing or driving. And don’t look at me like that: I know you’ve driven while talking on the cell phone.

Of course I’m not totally paranoid and I’m not stupid … I treat offers of why-don’t-your-kids-come-to-our-house? like gold. It’s perfect when one kid goes across the street and another goes next door. Then one kid is happy at home drawing and enjoying the TV or the silence or having me or Aron all to him- or herself. And Eva is happy nursing or sleeping on me or exploring carpet fibers or chewing dropped Pokemon cards.

Give it a try! Oh, and head over to The Kerrie Show to read the first installment of Weight Loss Mondays.

Writer’s Guidelines Needed?

2009-02-07T06:22:00.000-08:00

Readers …

Would it be helpful to you if I put links down the right side of this blog to parenting publication (and others, as I grab them) writer’s guidelines?

Only a small few put theirs online, but they are sometimes hard to find.

You might have a nice little essay or a how-to article hiding inside your head right now and all you need is a home in mind for it.

Let me be like the Million Dollar Matchmaker for your piece and the publication. I’ll do the work for you!

Don’t forget me when you become a best-selling author!

P.S. Happy birthday to my oldest daughter, who turns 4 today!

“Mothering” Rejection

2009-02-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

Had a hard day at home with the kids. Had to get out of the house. I like to go to the library so I can pick up some warm, fuzzy books and check e-mail and maybe submit a few articles while I’m there.

What can I say? Submitting articles and checking out books is my Valium or Marlboro. Plus it gets a little addicting checking email after I’ve submitted a buttload of queries.

Anyway, I got back a kind rejection from Mothering Magazine very quickly. I appreciated the speed of the rejection so I can rework it and find it another home. I don’t fault Mothering in any way because I’m new to the essay thing.

So now I’m mulling the piece over and finding there isn’t any great place to submit it. A great online zine “Imperfect Parent” looks great for it, but they have a huge backlog and aren’t accepting any submissions.

Hmmmm.

Wording Mistake

2009-02-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

I just keep on making mistakes so you can learn. You’re welcome.

I’ve been sending my articles via e-mail with the subject line “Submission: Article Title.”

Then I noticed one pub’s editorial guidelines (the fancy-schmancy way to say writer’s guidelines) says to use either “story idea, article or query” as the subject line.

Do you think they immediately deleted my e-mail because I didn’t comply with their directions?

Should I resubmit with the proper format?

Get Back in the Game

2009-02-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

If I had only had one query circulating in the world of parenting pubs, I would have been crushed when Brain, Child rejected my essay.

But I have lots out there, and you never know what’ll happen. And the only took 4 weeks to reject me instead of the up-to-10 their guidelines say they can take. And they wrote a kind and personal note about how they only publish 7 out of 750 submissions.

So I deleted the 3 extremely personal paragraphs from the essay and sent it off to Mothering Magazine. I was having trouble with what I’ve been working on for Mothering for the last year or so anyway, so maybe this’ll help me get over my writer’s block (sending them something completely random that I don’t expect them to publish, but being happy that I have something else out in the world).

Another Assignment

2009-01-31T06:18:00.000-08:00

Here’s the background on this little story:

I sent my reprint about stocking up on food and meals to a local parenting pub in Ohio. They didn’t want it, but wanted me to write something different based on something I did for MotherAndChildReunion.com about moms making money with their kids in tow.

After I did this and submitted it, I figured I could go ahead and send it all over the country before it got published and became a “reprint” (reprints make less money).

One place I sent it to said they wanted it, but wondered why I didn’t add Freelancing to my list of things moms can do to make money with their kids around. I emailed back, “Good point. I’ll add it and resubmit.”

I guess I never thought about Freelance Writing as something I’m doing to make money because I’ve only made $25 so far, and that was in 2007!!!!!

But … if I sell ONE article that’s the equivalent of like THREE HOURS of babysitting.

Interview: Author Victoria Solsberry

2009-01-29T02:00:00.000-08:00

This sounds so Wayne’s World, but I interviewed my dad’s cousin about her new book that’s out called “Adoption for Singles.”

Kerrie: What is your writing process?
Vicki: My writing process is probably the opposite of what they teach in writing programs around the country, because I'm a horrible editor! Once I put my thoughts into writing, it's very difficult for me to change those words, for some reason. So I do my research, all my reading, and then I think about it for days and weeks. Then I go to the library or a coffee shop armed with my laptop and snacks, and I crank it out, almost without stopping. For instance, I wrote the first chapter of my book in one afternoon at the library, with some scratch-outs and phrase rewrites, but when I was done, it was done. At that point I'm totally exhausted and need a glass of wine and dinner.

I've always been an all-at-once writer, even in high school and college. I think it's because I have ADHD and I'm unable to write in bits and pieces because I need to be totally immersed in that world for hours to make it all come together. So I've always prepared mentally, and then I've sat down and started writing with the whole outline in my head. I come up for air some time later with a more coherent and organized paper than I would if I wrote over the course of weeks. In the mental health field we call it "hyperfocus" and it works for me!

Kerrie: Did you keep your "day job" while writing?
Vicki: Absolutely. I had to to survive financially. So most of my writing was done on Saturdays because I'm too tired in the evening after a full day at work. I did do some of the research in the evenings -- for instance, the Appendix of all of the countries in the world and their policies on adopting to American singles (100+ pages) was done at night because I didn't really have to think! I was scanning for certain facts and when I found them, they went into a format that I had designed. I could even listen to the television when I was working on the directory!

One of the chapters of the book is a compilation of Questions and Answers from adoptive parents and adoption professionals I even got the Executive Director of The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, which felt like quite a coup for me! After an initial telephone call, the chapter was written by email, where I would send questions and the interviewees would answer, and then I'd follow up. It was great because I didn't have to record interviews and the interviewees were able to edit their words and say exactly what they wanted to say. It saved me a ton of work!

Kerrie: How did the idea for this book come to you?
Vicki: In addition to my training as a clinical social worker, I've been trained as a life coach. Several years ago I decided to focus on singles, not so much for dating support, but for support in all of the other areas of a successful single person's life. I knew that I needed money to pursue setting up a web community and hit on the idea of writing a short -- 40 pages or so -- electronic book about adoption to sell to make money for the new venture. But when I started researching the topic, I found that it was much more complicated that I had imagined, and that the adoption world is big and ever-changing. Every time I sat down to think about it, I thought of a new area that I thought needed to be addressed, because they were issues that I would want to know about if I were adopting or thinking about adoption. So the 40-page book turned into the book that ate New York, and I had to limit it to 288 pages with free white papers that can be downloaded from the web site. That way it would be less expensive for me to publish, and yet the additional forms that I designed to help with the adoption process, and other information about agencies, etc., would come with the book. And the electronic version is just one way to buy the book -- along the way I decided to actually print it!

Although I initially decided to write the book to make some money, it soon became clear to me that there are millions of children out there who need a parent. Here in the U.S., 129,000 kids' parents have had their parental rights terminated, and are waiting for parents. And there are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone! So it has become a crusade of sorts because I became aware of all of the children who are suffering, and I also found out that you can adopt for free if you're fairly open to all kinds of kids.

Kerrie: How long did it take you to write?
Vicki: It took about a year and a half, not because I wrote for hours each week, but because life got in the way and sometimes I would go for several months without writing at all. If I had been able to stop working and do my research and writing every day, I think it would have take several months to finish. Then the production process has been about 6 months long -- finding someone to do the graphics on the cover I designed and to format the text and get it digitally ready for printing (www.Accurance.com), proofreading many times, publishing and getting the ISBN number, having the cover and copyright page redone to reflect the ISBN number and publishing date. And setting up the book's web site so that it can be sold. I've learned an enormous amount about the production process, and I think that it will be much faster next time because I won't make the same mistakes!

Kerrie: What is the release date, a Web site, any other publicity information?
Vicki: The book is out right now (yeah!!!) and for sale at www.adoptionforsinglesbook.com. The book is a little more expensive than standard trade size paperbacks that you would find in your bookstore because it is a Print-on-Demand book. For those of you who aren't familiar with that process, it means that when you self-publish, as I did, you don't need to sign a contract and buy thousands of dollars worth of books that you sell and distribute yourself. I used www.lulu.com , a POD company that prints each book as it is ordered, charges a commission on each sale, and then sends me the royalty that I have put on each book. They make no money unless you sell your book and charge nothing more than that 20% commission, so it's quite a deal! They also offer a Distribution Package and submit the book to Amazon and Barnes and Noble for sale on their web sites. I had to price the book higher than I would like because Amazon and Barnes and Noble make 50% right off the top when a book is sold on their web sites. So I priced the book at $29.95 because the price has to be the same across all sales venues, and because A and B&N take $14.98. Anything lower would have meant that I would have to pay people to buy the book!

But, I think that if I were considering adoption, as busy as I am, I would be willing to pay someone $30 to do all of the research for me.

Vicki, I quite agree! Adoption is such a scary thought to so many people that they need a resource to guide them through the process. And I’m sure many singles don’t even think they have a chance at adoption. If they would just realize that (1) they don’t have to be perfect to adopt, (2) they don’t have to be rich to adopt and (3) there are many ages of kids to adopt that are just sitting in the System … they could be on their way to a whole new life as Parent!

Thanks for writing this book! Blog readers: please forward this post to anyone you know who is looking at adoption!

6 Steps to Keeping Well Organized

2009-01-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

Stumbled upon this blog article from Cascia about keeping your home office organized. Hope you enjoy it!

Blogging in a Vacuum

2009-01-25T19:16:00.000-08:00

Alright, I know of about ONE person who reads this blog, so I feel like I’m blogging to myself and I feel like I sound like a writing snob.

So, please leave me a comment, ANYBODY … let me know what you want me to write about. Do you give a crap about my writing and getting published process?

Do you want to know more about how I write with kids hanging off of me?

Do you want to know more about other mother writers?

Do you want more writing book recommendations?

Because if you don’t tell me what you want to know about, I swear I’m going to start describing my belly button lint and how long my leg hair gets before I shave it in the winter. And the consistency of my baby’s poop.

What will help you out on your writing journey? Wanna do a guest post?