Are you desperate to get published, to get your first byline and clip to show friends, family, and especially editors you’d like to write for? Don’t be. And don’t let publishers make you feel like you should be.

No doubt, it can be hard to get your first magazine article published. Many editors like to work with previously published writers. The pressure to get that first byline is legitimate, even for published writers who are trying to break in to a new market.

Breaking in is hard to do

It’s the age-old question, but it’s not unique to writers: How am I supposed to get experience if no one will hire me? We all have to get that first job/clip/whatever for our resumes, regardless of the field.

That’s why unpublished writers should exhibit confidence when they interact with editors; in no way should they assume or behave as if freelance writing is different from other professions. We all need to get our foot in the door at least once.

Don’t Let Editors See You Sweat

To a certain degree, I’m echoing sentiments expressed a short while ago by Linda Formichelli of The Renegade Writer Blog. Linda notes that writers should never let editors see them desperate for work. No matter how empty your bank account, Formichelli cautions, always present yourself in a positive, “how can I help you?” light.

That advice holds true whether you’ve published 200 articles or none. Editors shouldn’t see you as someone who so badly wants that first clip that you’ll accept just about any terms they toss your way.

As I mentioned in my previous post, in a recent call for submissions, a magazine editor announced that she needs several articles for her next issue. Unfortunately, it’s a nonpaying market. As compensation for published articles, writers will receive two subscriptions to the magazine, a $55 value.

I’ll write more about weighing the decision to write for free in another post. For now, let’s just say that writing for free does sometimes, under the right circumstances, have benefits.

But this editor also wants writers to work on spec, to submit articles that she may then hold for as long as six months before making a go/no-go decision. That means a writer could spend tens of hours researching and writing an article that never had a chance of being published in that magazine. And while the editor takes up to six months to decide whether she wants to publish it, the article is worthless to the writer, who can’t shop it around to other markets.
Keep reading… »

Tags: writing, freelance writing, unpublished writers, writing on spec, writing for free, getting published, magazine writing

That is the question.

But it shouldn’t be.

Check out the discussion at Joanne Jacobs’ blog about bathroom breaks in school. Here’s the USA Today article that prompted the blog post.

Bathroom bullying and vandalism are real problems that schools must obviously address, but that doesn’t mean kids shouldn’t be allowed to use the restroom when they need to. Want to get rid of bullying and vandalism in the bathrooms? Keep a limited number of bathrooms open at any time (depending upon the size of the school and the age range of the kids) and have an adult sit in the hallway nearby to check hall passes and to make sure nobody’s doing something they shouldn’t be doing in the bathroom. Problem solved.

Unfortunately, the tone of some of the quotes in the article and the blog comments make my head spin. Not only do some teachers not care that students are waiting too long to use the bathroom because of idiotic teacher and/or school policies, but some teachers (and I emphasize “some”) just really don’t like their students.

One commenter at Jacobs’ site brags about telling students that if they want to use the bathroom during his class period, they have to stay after school for ten minutes. He claims he never really makes them stay, but that doesn’t make his blatant power play and humiliation of the students any less despicable.

While checking the status of a package I’m expecting (or, shall I say, I’ve been expecting for three days), I noticed the following legalese at the bottom of the shipment tracking web page:

UPS, UPS brandmark, and the Color Brown are trademarks of United Parcel Service of America, Inc. All rights reserved.

So has the color brown itself been trademarked by UPS, or have the words Color Brown been trademarked? ‘Cause I’m thinkin’ if the US Trademark Office now lets companies trademark representations of light, then we’ve really entered the Twilight Zone.

Tags: trademarks, UPS, trademarking colors

When I first saw the headlines saying that Teen People was no longer going to be available in print, I thought, “There is a checkout counter god after all.”

And then I thought, “Finally, no more Teen People used as a source in college research papers.” (Yes, when I was teaching a few semesters ago, more than one paper used that rag as a source.)

And then I realized Teen People was still going to be available on the Web.

The really sad thing: It was probably the only source that the students had held in their hands in the publisher’s printed form. That means they a) may have bought some recreational reading material and b) actually had to type whatever content they were quoting from the magazine.

No more. Future issues will be available in electronic format only, which makes the copy-and-paste “research” method the undisputed king of college paper writing.

Tags: writing, research, college, teens, people