Why Every Writer Needs to Join at Least One Writers' Group

I've only recently realized how vital being part of  a writers' group is to my writing's momentum--not to mention how much opportunity and knowledge about the business is offered.

But not all writers' groups are the same--you cannot judge the usefulness of them in general based on your experience at one. When I was part of my first group, I didn't realize that that type wasn't the only choice.

1) A critique group--This is perhaps the most common type found--a group that offer members the chance to critique each others' pieces as the primary focus. This was much like my college experiences in classes and it was familiar. This type is really good for people who need others' feedback, encouragement and direction. This is vital--for a writer to get many peoples' impressions and readings is an education. The longer I was at the work of writing, more and more I became really concerned about how people read my work--were they getting what I intended? Was I successful at my goals? My group could tell me this and that is very valuable. (Note--for writers who don't really want to change anything to better succeed at getting the audience to receive what he/she meant to say will perhaps be very frustrated by this type of group. I remember when I was younger and less mature about feedback and constructive criticism, I didn't really want to be told anything needed improvement!)

2) I attended a conference and in so doing was given membership to a large writer's group, which I never intended to attend. But I started getting emails about the who the guest speakers (all professional writers) were for the next meeting, and I found myself suddenly more than willing to drive an hour to attend! This group offers a monthly meeting with a guest speaker in the industry giving a workshop or talk on some aspect of the business, then after, writers break into small groups for critique on pieces members chose to bring. This has been invaluable to me as a freelance writer and a novelist, equally. Before, I was a closet writer not really driven to publish--but now that I aim to publish (and am publishing), these opportunities are gems! From a full-time freelance writer guest, Hana Hataainan Caye last month to Joyce Magnin, novelist, this month, I'm very appreciative.

3) Through the aforementioned group, I was given the opportunity to join an online critique group made up of three other novelists. Each month, I get the opportunity to send part of my novel manuscript to three other writers and can ask their feedback on questions and problems that concern me most in my plot's development. Writing a novel is such solitary work, and traditional writers groups cannot handle dealing with a novel critique! I'd already taken the beginning to my critique group, and as valuable as that is, I cannot continue taking future chapters, once a year! The only people who can really give good feedback on them middle and end of a book are people who read the beginning. Our little group (of people I've never met in real life) are still in the beginning of our journey, and I cannot assess how valuable it is yet, but just the opportunity to have readers is a gift.

4) A motivational/accountability group. A college friend's husband (a writer with a couple completed novels under his belt ) started this group in their home once with the purpose of letting writers set goals and know that in the next meting, they'd be asked how well they completed that goal. We didn't critique, but more aimed to keep each other on track. I recently read a review of the book 90 Days to Your Novel by Sarah Domet, and read an interview with her talking about how such accountability really makes the difference.

My writing life is so much richer, and more successful, because of these four types--though obviously, I'm not involved in all 4 at the same time. Try finding a group near you by searching your local paper's listings for groups, or try a meetup.com group.

Articles I've published:
Fight Breast Cancer with Salmon, Not Pink Cupcakes (And Other Cancer- Fighting Tips)


Postpartum Depression: Options for Medical and Other Treatment


Why is The United States Reacting Differently Than Other Governments to Cell Phone Risk Study Results?


Pampers' Myths and Facts Page About Environmental and Health Impacts: A Critique

Breaking into the Parenting Magazine Market: Go Across the Pond?

Breaking into the page of parenting magazines is supposedly one of the hardest markets to crack. It makes sense though--there's a glut of writers with that as their expertise--while a handful of moms writing from home may have the chops to write for finance magazines, a handful more who can write about fitness, and some who can write about health issues--what is the most common feature of the many women trying to freelance is a great many of us have kids! I've gotten articles on health and spirituality published considerably easy, but most of my articles, on parenting topics, have yet to find a home.

I started freelancing 9 months ago, and have sent stuff to the big magazines: Parents, Pregnancy, Fit Pregnancy, and have yet to hear anything. I've also tried smaller magazines: Working Mother, Mothering, and Kiwi, and have, with 2 of them, gotten to the point of talking with editors, but still no sale. I've read the classic advice to "start local" and write for regional parenting magazines. However, the lone parenting magazine in my region is as impenetrable as granite for me. I see that most of its articles are written by the same freelance writers over and over. I've sent multiple queries and have not ever heard a single word in response to any. Until the day I can offer something truly spectacular that none of their currently used writers can deliver, that door seems to be shut to me. Contrary to that advice for starting out, I've gotten further with national magazines, even getting an "on spec" assignment.

I planned to write a post, frantically posing the question "How Can Anyone to Break into the Parenting Magazine Market??"  But before I got around to posting about my frustrating lack of success, I got an email about my first sale to a parenting magazine. Get this--it's a UK magazine!

This particular article began as a query to Kiwi and was respectfully turned down because the editor said something similar was already in the works. I then queried Mothering, and the editor gave me the assignment "on spec." So I then put in the time, conducted my interviews, wrote it and sent it. However, it didn't sell and I'll never know exactly why. I then did more research to figure out where to send it--the article is not general enough for mainstream parenting magazines (which is probably good because as I've stated, I've gotten nowhere with them!) I found out about the UK magazine Green Parent and sent my article their way. I received an email of initial interest and a request from the editor to keep it "on file" for consideration in a future issue. I didn't expect to hear anything more until after Christmas, so then, getting her email the day before Thanksgiving, stating that she was "keen" on publishing it in the issue coming out in January, I was surprised.

So is this an adequate "break" into the bastion of parenting magazines? Is publishing in another English-speaking country another "break in" possibility method? Will this UK magazine credit work some magic getting me further with other parenting magazines? Only time will tell, but I hope so.

Articles of mine available online:
Fight Breast Cancer with Salmon, Not Pink Cupcakes (And Other Cancer- Fighting Tips)


Infertility, Delayed Conception Linked to Fire Retardants in Homes


http://christiandevotions.us/tag/reneelannan/

Destroying Marriage, Career and Self-concept: Vulvodynia

Websites Advertizing Freelance Writing Work

This past Saturday, I attended a talk, hosted by a writers group I belong to, from Hana Haatainen Caye, a woman who makes an honest-to-God living as a freelancer, with no other day job. She shared how she's been conducting her business over the past five years since she started and how she's found niches for her writing.  What struck me as the most practical information, to me, was the fact that she now has a relationship with a particular magazine and writes for it monthly, and the gig started with her putting a bid on a job on www.Elance.com. I had never heard of that site, but she described how individuals and businesses looking for writers post jobs, then writers with Elance accounts can place bids, and then the poster hires someone based on those bids. I have very little knowledge of that whole system, but apparently, there's more than one: FreelanceWriting.com, Freelancer com, Guru.com. For Elance, there is a membership with a fee, but there is also a basic free membership that allows only 10 bids per month--but for the amount of time I have as a during-nap-time-freelancer, that's all I'd ever need!

I checked out Elance.com and started setting up an account. I'm quite busy right now, but when I am looking for other opportunities, I think I will really give that a shot. But as I looked through the postings, some of Hana's words rang very true. Some of the listings were way below what I'd consider doing and merit complete ignoring. There were posts from people looking for a writer to write the content for their business website, and they wanted to pay no more than $1 for each 100 word article, or even less. (Consider the percentage that Elance takes for the service of connecting you with the employment, and it's even more ridiculous...plus the percentage taken to process the PayPal payment...)

I am glad I heard advice from a seasoned freelancer who has gotten good work from such a site--to  hear her suggestion that it's only worth doing if the writing is on topics you know--if you have to do much research before you write, jobs can turn out to be extremely low paying.

There were some that looked decent though, so I think it's a good resource to know about.

Articles I've written:
Lyme Disease: Surprises in Recovery

Acidity in Your Diet Linked with Weight Loss Struggle, Depression and Degenerative Disease

How to Determine If Your Child is Ready to Begin Kindergarten

His Eye on The Sparrow? Review of The Novel, The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow

Does Writing Success Come in Groups of Three?

I had a dream that I was telling my writer's group that a few devotionals I wrote were published in God Stories 6, a regional publication for Central PA, all writers of the region sharing personal experiences to create a year's worth of daily mediations. I woke up the next morning and read an email that I really was published in that book: http://www.dcfi.org/House2House/One_Devotional_2011.html. i'm pretty sure that's the first time I've published in a book compilation.

The next day, I received an email from Chicken Soup for Soul people that a piece was officially accepted, and they wanted my final OK for the final edit. I had known my story was in the final running, but was also told that the decision wouldn't be made until March of 2011, so being told now was a surprise!

Those two developments, in a span of days, was really encouraging. As some aspects of my writing have no been so rewarding... I've been trying to freelance for magazines, but haven't gotten anywhere since September, and the online content website enterprise is on the back burner for now; I sort of forget sometimes that I write in 2 other markets: devotionals and personal essays.

So now I've got 5 official publishing credits from the traditional publishing world. (That's not counting online content stuff) I'll keep plugging away. And as always, I know not to measure my success by $ or by the number of publications--it's a calling, not merely work.

It'll be interesting to see, after this venture really takes off, at what point (as in number of months since starting) it really took on momentum. I'm still waiting for it...

PS After I wrote this, I got an email from an editor of a parenting magazine , wanting to buy my article for the Feb/March issue! (My newest blog entry catalogs this experience of breaking into parenting magazines.)

Some recent publications:

What is a Disposable Diaper Made of Anyway?

Postpartum Depression, Psychological Distress Predicted by Previous Traumatic Birth

http://www.youandmemagazine.com/articles/vulvodynia-five-years-in-the-fire

Infertility, Delayed Conception Linked to Fire Retardants in Homes

Transferring Your Values About Sex to Your Kids: Timing and Definitions are Key

List of Publications Accepting Submissions and Deadlines--Cool Resource!

Just found a pretty lengthy list of publications accepting submissions--with links to the publications: http://www.christwriters.info/open-submissions.php. It includes everything from Redbook to Christian devotional type publications. The same website also has a link to deadlines of contests, calls for content, etc. due this fall: http://www.christwriters.info/deadlines.php. Quite educational. For anyone without a Writer's Market book, this is a good second source.

Today I sent out a manuscript in answer to one of those listing I mentioned at the above resource. We'll see what happens! In fact, today I sent out three manuscripts--one to MomSense mag, another to Parents (when I can find my stamps, that is...) and the last to a Guideposts compilation book. With my recent mixed experiences as I talked of in my recent post, "My First 'On Spec' Assignment for a Magazine," I'm choosing to deal with it by attacking the market--sending, sending, sending. If it's about ratios, then the more i send, the more can possibly succeed. I've let too many manuscripts chill too long already. So if you're in the same boat--take courage, and send, send, send!

Someone in my writers' group shared some other person's goal to get 100 rejections in a year. Obviously, some acceptances had to come along with them, but putting the weight ion the rejection by stating the goal that way kinda shifts the disappointment. To meet that goal, you must send a lot--and that helps with the real goal to get published more often. I wonder ho many rejections (or implied rejections) I have garnered so far.... Maybe 20?
(Also, I remind myself of the purpose of rejection, and my personal theory for viewing it productively, which I blogged about before too.)

How I Handle Rejection of My Writing

Just as I was telling someone last night, I shouldn't take even an eventual "no" from an editor so hard. It's not the same thing as "failure"--it may just mean it's not the right place for a very good article. I remind myself that this is really all about God using me to get information to the people who need to read it. A series of "no" answers from editors could be just the path an article needs to take to get me to eventually send it to the right publication at the right time to reach whomever it needs to reach. Yes, that is just the sort of worldview I ascribe to--I was called to write, not just simply given the ability to learn how to do it. There's a purpose in what I do (if I keep communicating with God and endeavoring to follow his nudges).

It's happened once already where I think God wiped the stuff off my desk, figuratively speaking, and gave me the nudge to write a different article than the one I was working on. In a mere hour or so, I wrote--no, an article poured from me--and I sent it to a content website. I was trying to work on a serious article about problems in prenatal care, but instead I was interrupted by the strong impression that I needed to write about persistent cases of infant thrush. The turn-over time on publication was unusually fast. When it was published, I posted it on my facebook wall. That very day, a friend I knew in high school but have not seen in well over a decade messaged me on facebook, saying it was "totally a God thing" that I'd posted that article that day, because she was in throes of that very issue with her son. All I could say was, yeah--must have been a God thing!

That story is a good reminder to me when I think I'm not succeeding by my own terms and lost of goals. And when rejection discourages me. The definition of success isn't getting every article accepted the first time. No, if my purpose  is to help people through my writing, inform the public on issues, and support peoples' experiences by writing words that will reach them in times of need, then I've got to get over disappointment when one editor of one magazine says o. Or even seven magazines. What I'm doing as a writer, if I'm really following God's lead, I believe, is about my writing getting to a particular audience at the most opportune time.  I will never know all the times a rejection at one publication means I get it to another magazine that reaches someone in a profound way. But I remember that little story about the thrush baby as a symbol of what could be, and what always might be, going on all the time as I go about the business of writing and publishing. And that is success that matters.

Random topics I've written about:

Acidity in Your Diet Linked with Weight Loss Struggle, Depression and Degenerative Disease

Treatment for Hair Loss: Diet is Key and Cause of Hair Thinning

Green Tea Compound Found to Work as a Painkiller

Treating Depression with Natural or Alternative Medicine

Are Schools Expecting Our Kids to Read Too Early?

Why is Facebook Failing as a Marketing Tool for Me?

Facebook used to be the by-far largest source of traffic to my articles (published on content websites) I posted there. Now, facebook is fourth on my list of sources for viewers. Google searches is the top source, followed by Gomestic, one of the sites I am published on, then Healthmad, another I write for. That is quite a flip from my first months' experiences.

I've often wondered if I'd simply exhausted the facebook audience. Were my topics just not of interest? Did my friends just learn my general stance on issues and, if they did not have a great investment in that view, deem my articles not of interest?

It's a gamble. I mean, I'd not have expected an article on diapers to gain that much attention. Last month I wrote about new studies on post-partum depression anddevelopmental delays being associated with fire retardants in a baby's umbilical cord. Those topics were the ones I expected to be noticed, but they got mere handfulls of views. My latest series (which I actually wrote way back in April), on financially making stay-at-home-parenting work, was a dismal failure. Each of the 4 parts have gained only 3 or 6 views, and I can't know if any of them actually came from facebook traffic. That's probably a work of 4,000 words and has so far not benefited much of anyone yet let alone earned me any financial gain, even pennies.

I'm taking a break from content writing, at least for a time. I feel relief in taking a break from posting on fb so much. Sometimes I felt self-conscious about it. I didn't want people to feel bludgeoned over the head with my articles. But then I reminded myself, no one is forced to read anything--I passively add the link, but there is no expectation. At least, no more than I feel when I see other friends post a link. And I remind myself that when I see others' links, it's totally comfortable for me--they're there for my to click if I'm interested, and if not, I just scroll down. Sometimes I still felt bad though if my fb activity were viewed as strictly self-promotional. I tried to balance that by making sure all I posted wasn't just articles. After all, people are my fb friends cuz they like me, not necessarily because they like my writing. And I realized too that I don't ever feel offended when fb friends do promote themselves. I have many friends with etsy shops and such who post pictures of their new items for sale. I genuinely enjoy seeing them even if I'm not interested in buying. Likewise, a friend of mine owns a bookstore and all his posts are about books he's trying to sell. Again, I never see that as pushy or annoying. That's just simply what I expect of a Hearts and Minds Bookstore post. I hope that's how people have viewed my posting of articles.

While I don't know the why of all this, what is certain is that what used to be profitable for me no longer is, in any measure. I don't have my final answer on strategy or a decision about quitting the content gigs. 

Articles I've written:

Infertility, Delayed Conception Linked to Fire Retardants in Homes

Fast Food, Junk Food and Obesity Subsidized by Federal Government

The American Diet--Are We All Made of Corn?