The Many Hats of Writers

With fewer traditional publishers willing to publish new authors and the overall publishing industry getting harder books published, today's writers must wear many hats by necessity.

Today’s writer has two options, DIY or outsource. Outsourcing can become expensive and some writers may not be able to afford outsourcing, so that leaves DIY.

The hats of DIY that writers must wear.

1. Writer
2. Editor
3. Proofreader
4. Publisher
5. Promoter
6. Marketer
7. PR person
8. Video Creator
9. Retailer/Wholesaler
10. Booking Agent
11. Web Designer
12. Content Creator
13. Web Manager
14. Content Manager
15. Social Media Manager
16. Networking Manager
17. Shipping Manager
18. Bookkeeper
19. Entrepreneur
20. Record Keeper

So much for time to write. If you want to be a writer, you’ll find the time to write. No one ever said the writing is easy in today’s writing market.

Writing take dedication and hard work to be successful, whatever that means to you. Only a few writers make it big, the rest work hard and with some luck and hard work can make some money writing.

Writing is a calling, not a way to get rich unless you come up with the next “Harry Potter”, which rarely happens. There is a good deal of luck in making it big. J. K. Rowling the author of the “Harry Potter” series, was rejected 12 times before a friend of her daughter read it and told to her father about how good it was. He took a chance on publishing it, we know how well that went.

If you are a writer that must DIY everything because you just don’t have the money for a literary agent, which can cost thousands of dollars, if you can find one to take a chance on your book, you will have to wear many hats and learn what you need to get your book in front of readers.

This article is to enlighten you about the uphill battle you face as you work toward publication, and getting your book into the reader’s hands.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer/Blogger/Editor/Proofreader/Reviewer/Marketer

http://www.authorsden.com/robertmedak

http://rjmedak.wordpress.com

http://twitter.com/freelancewrtr

How to Write Anniversary Articles

photograph by Michael Gwyther-Jones  on Flickr under CC licence

Here in England. people everywhere are 
preparing for next weekend's celebrations of 
the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.


For weeks, newspapers and magazines have 
been full of articles on everything from The 
Day I Met the Queen to How to Make Royal 
Icing.


Special days and celebrations are ideal 
subjects for the jobbing writer looking for 
publication online, in newspapers or 
magazines.


Well-targeted anniversary articles are 
excellent too for the short 150 word fillers vital for 
plugging those small page gaps. Fillers are 
always needed and  a good way for new 
writers to break into publication in magazines.


How to Check Out Anniversaries


To check out anniversaries for a 
particular day use Wikipedia with care, 
use a search engine or try newspaper and radio 
websites. Your library may have a copy of 
Chase's Calendar of Events.


The New YorkTimes has an on-this-day feature
And Ottowa Researchers provide a similar service for Canadian birthdays and events. 


What Happened Today?


 In 1819, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was 
born  and  Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer died on this day in 1643.


In 1930, pioneering pilot Amy Johnson became 
the first woman to fly from England to Australia while in 1962  American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.


It would have made an ideal article for this 
year being a fiftieth anniversary--editors love 
round dates.


They also like quirky and unusual articles. Everyone will be targeting articles on the main stories. But for a writing magazine, you'd be better tackling today as the first publication date of Mary Had a Little Lamb.


How to Find Submission Dates


Obviously check for submission guidelines or request them by email. Remember that many magazines are working as far as six months or more ahead. In other words you might need to submit Christmas dates in May.


And how do you know what the magazine is planning if it's not in the guidelines? Check out the media kit or advertising calendar. It lists the year's planned covers and main focus for each month--useful if the magazine is one which is not visibly open to submissions. Here's an example from the New Hampshire magazine and another from Eating Well.


Footnote
May is also Revise Your Work Schedule month (oh dear, I should be doing that) and if you're looking for a recipe for Royal Icing, here's one from the BBC.




 Anne Duguid is a senior content editor with MuseItUp Publishing and   her New Year's Resolution is to blog with helpful writing,editing and publishing tips at Slow and Steady Writers far more regularly than she managed in 2011.