WD Editors

Chapter Five
Tackle the Clips Catch-22

“As a work-at-home mom, my world can sometimes feel a little narrow. Now that I have a monthly gig writing for a local arts magazine, I’m going out on assignments and meeting interesting people. By promoting local events, I feel like I’m making a contribution to my community. With each article I write, my world opens a little wider.”
~ Lauren Fritzen, mother of one

Clips are previously published samples of your writing. You can improve your chances of getting published at new publications by including clips with your submissions that show how well you have written for other publications. Of course, this leaves unpublished writers at a distinct disadvantage, which is why the topic of clips is often confusing. Half of the pros say, “You need clips; Bite the bullet and go get them,” while the other half say, “There’s a way around this whole clips nonsense, and I can teach you those insider secrets.”

Think of it this way: You probably would not say to your child, “Homework? Bah! I’m sure we can find a way around it.” So let’s just deal with clips in a practical, straightforward manner.

The basic strategy behind acquiring clips is simple: You start writing for small, local publications and work your way up to large, national, or international publications. So your progress goes something like this: 1) Write local. Use the clip and pitch regional. 2) Write regional. Use the clip and write national. 3) Write national and write for anyone you like. The essential strategy, when you’re getting started, is to work your way up from smaller to larger publications before you start thinking about expanding out into diverse markets, topics, and audiences.

Clipping Strategy

If you want to get into the wider-distribution, higher-paying publications sooner rather than later, you need to be even more strategic. Here’s a roundup of where to get the clips likely to impress editors.

Daily Newspapers
Newspapers are a great choice for getting clips. For one thing, the dailies usually work with freelancers, and they need a lot of content to keep their pages full. Also, newspaper editors will push you to adapt a journalistic writing style, which can improve your writing skills and help you become more professional and versatile. And unlike weekly or monthly newspapers, most daily newspapers like The Oregonian or the Chicago Sun-Times or the Boston Globe consistently produce a quality product. This means you will net a high-quality clip for your hard work. If you find a daily newspaper for which you feel an affinity, then this is definitely the best place to start, as all daily newspapers cover a wide variety of news and lifestyle issues. Assuming you can match the paper’s tone and style, offer to work for the editor in charge of your local section, then work your way up from there. Or, if you have expertise with a particular audience-such as business, cooking, or health-approach the editor of the corresponding section.

Your Best Bet: Start by pitching one idea and try to develop a regular writing gig. Many of my students over the years have aspired to column writing. This is a fine long-term goal, but columnists at the dailies are usually seasoned journalists who have paid their dues. My suggestion is to put column writing aside initially, and ask your editor where he can use you based on your strengths. You’re likely to cover “a beat,” which is one area or subject. Even if you start with something that doesn’t interest you much, like “recreation” or “business” topics, that foot in the door can lead to better assignments down the road. Of course, newspapers don’t pay as much as magazines, but when you have regular assignments, the steady money adds up. That’s a free education and expense money all rolled into one.

National Trade Magazines
In addition to the national, glossy magazines at your local newsstand or bookstore, there’s a whole other world of magazines you may not know about-trade journals. Trade journals are published for an audience of professionals, who subscribe to stay current on trends and news specific to their industry. Think Massage Magazine, Bee Culture, and Pizza Today. Don’t turn up your nose at the mention of trade magazines. If you haven’t yet written for a national audience, your ticket to that clip may be writing for the trades. Besides, you will learn about zooming in on the mindset and needs of a specific interest group, which is great practice. Another plus: Trade magazine editors are hungry for well-written content. The pay can be anywhere from poor to very good, and if you follow through with a well-executed article, the opportunity for repeat gigs is high. However, like writing for newspapers, writing for the trades may lead you down roads that have less to do with your imagined specialty and more to do with honing your writing skills. Whether writing for the trades is your final destination or your stepping stone, it will help you acquire the all-important clips that could land you better-exposure gigs in the future.

Your Best Bet: Look at your four best audiences. Any connections between them and trade publication audiences? For example, Emmis Publishing publishes both Country Sampler magazine and Country Business magazine. Since I like writing profiles and writing about home décor, they both are a good fit for me. Go to the sites of some of your favorite magazine publishers and see what else they publish. You just might find some trades you’ve never heard of before that you’d enjoy writing for.

Custom and Closed-Circulation Publications
Custom publications are magazines and newsletters published by and for organizations that want a professional print media presence for business members, customers, or clients of the parent company. For example, the California State Automobile Association publishes Via; the Smithsonian publishes Smithsonian; and Costco publishes Costco Connection. Alumni magazines are a great choice for beginning freelancers. Writer mama Abigail Green says alumni magazines will often give an unpublished writer an assignment if she’s an alum and that some of her nicest clips come from such publications. Closed-circulation magazines are aimed at readers with specific needs like Arthritis Today, or bp for people with bipolar disorder.

Your Best Bet: Order and study these publications based on your areas of interest, personal challenges, and best-bet audiences. For example, Autism-Asperger’s Digest magazine might be a good target for a writer mama with a child who has been diagnosed with one of these conditions.

Online Markets That Pay
You can find online publications that pay by checking WritersMarket.com. Some print publications take submissions for online use only, and these are excellent choices for beginners. Avoid any online start-ups, shady deals, or editors who try to coax you in by saying they might pay in the future.

When clips are what you’re after, focus less on how much online publications pay than on the quality of clip you’ll get for your effort. However, avoid writing for any online publications for free, unless you’re doing it as a promotion strategy, not a writing-business-builder strategy. The exception to this rule is if you’re writing for a site with name recognition and a proven track record of professionalism and high-quality content. Bluesuitmom.com would be an example: They don’t pay anymore (they used to), but they have high editorial standards and a good reputation.

Your Best Bet: Beware of wasting too much time on the hunt for online paying markets. A “quick” search on the Internet can cost you hours with no real progress made. Find references by word of mouth and through reputable writer-market providers or fellow writers.

Glossy Regional or Local Publications
There has been a proliferation of local and regional publication start-ups in recent years. For example, when I moved away from Bellingham, Washington a couple years ago, a new glossy (a magazine printed on coated paper so it appears glossy) called Entertainment News Northwest started up. Several of my former students now contribute to it regularly. Though the pay is in the low range, they appreciate the steady work and the high-quality clips. If and when the time is right, they can move up the pay scale by leveraging the quality clips they’ve acquired to expand into higher-circulation publications. Many, if not most, freelancers continue to work with regional and national publications even after they have broken in to the nationals.

Your Best Bet: If all of your time is eaten up writing for lower-paying publications, you might find yourself without enough energy to break in to higher-paying publications. Remember that “breaking out” of the groove you’re comfortable in often temporarily requires a burst of energy until you’ve “broken in” to the next level. Allow yourself to have too much work temporarily by retaining your lower paying publications while you approach higher paying markets. Eventually you’ll be in the position where you need to drop your lowest paying publication in order to manage your workload. (See Wendy Burt’s Accountability Sheet on pages 199-200).

Local and Regional Newspapers
These publications are generally scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms of pay, and yet they still offer some of the most creative, opinion-oriented, and colorful writing opportunities. If this interests you and you need clips, and you find a paper in which the editors do a careful and conscientious job, go ahead and write a couple articles for them, and then move on. While writing for local and regional newspapers will drain your valuable time and energy in the long run, enjoy the additional creative license they may offer for a brief interlude, and then, if breaking into the nationals is one of your goals, say, “Next!”

Your Best Bet: Local and regional newspapers sometimes can’t afford professional photographers, so build up your small paycheck by offering photos with your writing. One writer mama found that she actually made more money from her photos than from her articles even though the photos took a fraction of the time and she had no professional photography experience

In the next chapter, you will learn how to submit your writing with a cover letter, and in section III, how to write a query letter to an editor to pitch (propose) your article ideas. So keep your clips handy and ready to submit as clean photocopies (for mail) or scanned PDF files posted on a Web site to which you can provide a link (for e-mail submissions).

Clipping Success
1. Getting clips is about the quality of each clip, not the sheer quantity you can rack up. “Quality” refers to the total value of the clip in terms of the overall package: how well it’s written, edited, and designed on the page. So improve your writing skills. Editors want to work with writers who produce quality work no matter what the size and reach of their publication.
2. When a clip you’ve worked hard for disappoints, don’t be so quick to blame it on the editor or publication. Consider your role in the process before deciding not to work with an editor and publisher again. There are enough professional publishers and editors out there that there is no reason to settle for anything less.
3. Offering photos with your writing for local publications can increase your paycheck-sometimes dramatically.
4. Total pay divided by how many hours it takes you to write and revise the article equals how much you’re making per hour. Freelancer Abigail Green keeps close track of her hourly rate. If she can write more quickly for a regional, her hourly rate is often higher than it would be writing for a national. If you can write more swiftly for regional publications and meet their editorial needs with ease, pay attention to the math. Another way Green increases her paycheck is by including national sources in regional articles. This way she can tie a local piece into a national trend and amplify its resale potential for other markets.
5. Take on repeat assignments from reputable editors who want to retain you after you do a good job for them, but only until or while you continue to work on landing better-paying gigs (assuming that’s your ultimate goal).
6. Become a weekly correspondent (a person who reports on local news and happenings) for your daily paper from your neighborhood or town. Or contribute regularly to a quality regional magazine that reflects one of your specialties (parenting, health and wellness, fitness, food, spirituality, or pets). Regular writing assignments carried out conscientiously prepare you for working with national editors.

Portfolio Power

One of the best ways to motivate yourself is to start a portfolio of your published clips. Begin with a three-ring binder (this can be as basic or fancy as you want) and challenge yourself to see how quickly you can fill it with articles carrying your byline.

Another way to stay motivated is to have a Portfolio Party with a writer friend. Get together quarterly for coffee or lunch and toast each other’s success. There’s no better way to reward yourself than to share your success with someone who knows how challenging it is to get, and stay, motivated. You can even have a Portfolio Party while the kids are having a play date-a fun way to combat the usual isolation of the writing process. If the kids are very young, you can take turns watching them and perusing each other’s portfolios. And while you’re swapping insights into editorial likes and dislikes (this comes up naturally as part of the conversation), why not share writer’s guidelines you’ve accumulated? A cooperative, rather than competitive, attitude will help increase both your sales.

Collect Sample Copies of Hard-to-Find Publications

Don’t settle for the publications you can find locally if writing nationally is what you really want. One reason that trade, custom, and closed-circulation magazines offer more opportunities for freelancers is that you usually cannot just pick them up at your local drugstore, library, or newsstand. Chances are good that you will need to order sample issues of these publications. Although many don’t charge for sample issues, determine which publications best suit your audiences before ordering. (In the case of newspapers, you will choose the section of the paper that best suits your audience.) List publications in each category below that you could and would like to write for:

Daily Newspapers, Your Best-Bet Sections:
Trade Magazines, Your Best-Bet Audiences:
Custom and Closed-Circulation Publications, Your Challenges, Interests, and Audiences:

You’ll find ordering information on WritersMarket.com, or contact the publisher directly following an Internet search. Is it worth a few bucks to purchase sample copies of higher-paying publications if it increases your likelihood of landing an assignment? You bet!

GATHER EVERY AFTERNOON MOMENT

If you are a mom, you know how to reprioritize, punt, and juggle-often simultaneously. Even if afternoon is not your first choice for writing time, this is the time of day that often, mercifully, includes naptime, which can allow even the busiest mom to jot a few thoughts on paper. While some moms use naptime to relax and recharge, writing moms reach for their pen, or streamline the rest of their day so they have time in the evening to write.

Here are some tricks to have ready:
1. Toddlers can be notoriously slow eaters. If you are “blessed” with a poky or a picky one, make use of the time you spend sitting at the kitchen table. Keep a notepad handy, so you can pull it out after you serve lunch and brainstorm while the kids eat.
2. If you have kids of various ages at home, lunchtime is probably not going to yield any literary breakthroughs. However, if you spend your time wisely at lunch, you can earn time before or after dinner when back-up help (spouse or an older child) returns. So go ahead and set the table for dinner after lunch, get the recipes and ingredients out for dinner, and, if possible, get a jumpstart on preparation while everyone is still finishing their meal.
3. If you are a really lucky writer mama, your child’s naps afford you valuable extra work time. If not all your children are still in the naptime stage, you can maximize your naptime minutes by declaring afternoon Quiet Time for all your children, for as long as the napping child will sleep. During Quiet Time all children must go to their rooms, play quietly, and leave mommy alone-unless it’s urgent, of course. Discourage interruptions that aren’t absolutely necessary.
4. Sometimes naptime gets the ax so kids can have earlier bedtimes at night. Don’t let anyone guilt-trip you about what time your child goes to bed. Do what works for you and your child. You’re a working writer and you need to get your work done. So if the afternoon is your best time to work, let your children take long naps and send them to bed at eight, nine, or even ten if you want.
5. Try “un-napping,” a trick I’ve learned over the years that works like a charm for a mom who needs to reboot her brain. After the kids are down for their naps, lie flat on your back, close your eyes, and rest for just a minute. Set a timer nearby to wake you in ten minutes so you won’t fall into a deep sleep. Now here’s the trick: Start counting down from one hundred to zero. Visualize each number as you mentally think it. You’ll be “asleep” before you know it. But don’t stay asleep. Get up in ten minutes. Believe it or not, you’ll be refreshed and ready to work. At the very least, you’ll feel more rested than you did before you un-napped.
6. Afternoons are a great time to connect with other writer mamas. Maybe their kids are napping too. Write a few quick, supportive e-mails. Call a writer mama friend or offer to read and review a friend’s writing during this otherwise sluggish time. It’s a good warm-up before you plunge back into your own writing.
7. Attend to your office duties in the afternoon. Update your Rolodex. Straighten up the paperwork on your desk. Set some quick goals. File drafts and create new folders. Do anything that will make you feel ready to write next time you sit down. Clear those decks!