Words on the Page

Taking Time Off

Posted on by lwidmer

October was a wildly busy month and November is shaping up into the same. The exhaustion I’m used to on Friday afternoon is occurring on Tuesday now. Time for a break. While I’m off today putting a chunk of copy down on my National Novel Writing Month entry, I thought I’d share a new favorite…

Building Worth One Day at a Time

Posted on by lwidmer

Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I’m passionate about writers valuing their talents appropriately – hence Writers Worth Day, my mid-May mini-fest to remind the writing world that we too deserve decent wages. But talk on several forums I frequent have turned to education of our peers. For…

When to Walk Away

Posted on by lwidmer

I had a nice email conversation with a blog regular the other day. She was relaying her frustration with bidding a large job. In giving all the details, it sounded like a pickle until she typed this line: “Any per-page rate I try to quote blows their budget away because of volume.” Up to that…

Why Content Mills Have That Reputation

Posted on by lwidmer

Not to open Pandora’s box again, but my better half came across an interesting post that speaks directly to why content mills have a less-than-stellar reputation. He frequents a Scottish forum, and one of the forum members was livid recently. It seems her published book was plagiarized. The alleged thief posted a good portion of…

How Low Should You Go?

Posted on by lwidmer

Beginning writers (and those still not up to their earning potential), this is for you. The eternal dilemma: how little is too little payment for any job? When you’re starting out especially, the problem becomes how to build a credible list of accomplishments and make decent money. That’s how some get locked into writing for…

Monthly Assessment – October

Posted on by lwidmer

Oh my lord, was this a long month or what? We had an extra few days to play with, which turned out feeling like an entire extra month stuffed into October. While the time may have flown by on the calendar, there were a lot of days to contend with. October is a critical month…

Working Like a Pro

Posted on by lwidmer

A while ago I was part of a two-person writing team that the client had assembled. This particular client was just forming a business, so there was a bit of miscommunication on meeting times, call times, etc. In one case, the client had made, and missed, two separate conference calls. Frustrating as it was, we…

Repositioning Your Brand

Posted on by lwidmer

You’re a brand. You know that, right? Whether you’re just starting out and trying to define your career or you’re a few years or decades into it, you have a perception in the market. Beginning writers – you struggle with this most, but it’s not tough to position yourself in a way that secures a…

Too Busy? Charge More

Posted on by lwidmer

It’s been a busy month for me – busy to the point where I’ve ignored my workouts, haven’t read books, and glance through magazines in passing. My husband said, “Time to raise the rates.” He’s right. When the work is coming in faster than a writer can handle it, that’s an indication the price is…

Myths About Queries

Posted on by lwidmer

Welcome to a new week! Since so much of last week was spent in direct contact with new-to-this-blog writers, I’m assuming there were some newbies in the crowd. And hopefully, a few have stuck around. If so, this post is for you. And veteran writers? You, too. Remember what your first query letter looked like?…

Devon Ellington

What I've learned from teaching — and what I tell my students — is that if you can't read and follow for the guidelines for something as simple as an exercise, don't think you can get away with the same thing in a query or submission to a magazine and get any better response!

Lori

Amen. It shocks me how many writers won't follow simple directions.

Devon Ellington

Some of it it carelessness, but I've also noticed that a lot is ego — they think they're so brilliant, the rules don't apply.

Wendy J.

I admit that I haven't written too many Query letters. The ones I have, weren't successful, because I basically did everything that, I now read, you're not supposed to.

My first query letter was a doozy. I was great at selling them on NOT buying the article. It would go under the category of apologizing for lack of experience. I think I spent about half of the letter telling them how inexperienced I was at writing, even though I knew the topic. I wonder why they rejected it? LOL!

One of these days, I should brush up on that and do one right for once.

Paula

The only thing you left out, Lori, is clips. Some beginners don't have any clips they feel are adequate, but others send in way too many irrelevant or mediocre clips. The magic number I try to stick with is three. Never inundate and editor with tons of clips. More it not better. Even one decent clip is good for a beginner. While published clips are best, many magazines will also consider high-quality unpublished clips.

As for snail mail vs. e-mail, I agree. I was shocked to read some replies in a huge LinkedIn Group (I may have quit that group by now) where a "professional" was telling newbies that ALL editors now prefer e-mail queries. I set him straight, also pointing out that some spam filters trap e-mails with words like "opportunities" or "freelance" in the subject header. I still wonder if that guy may have been attempting to undermine his competition.

Lastly, new writers need to realize queries are much like highly-targeted direct marketing campaigns. I don't know what the actual statistics are, but when writing a direct marketing article several years ago, I believe a source said they were happy if they got a 7% response, but 2% or 3% was closer to average at that time. (Someone please correct me if you know the actual figures!) Of course, a well-written query will be specific to a publication and/or editor, so the response rate should be higher – maybe 10%. When you're pitching to editors who already know you, your odds should go up dramatically.

I'm about to send a few ideas to one of my long-time editors, and the odds are about 100% that at least one of the ideas will be assigned, but far less that all will be assigned.

Eileen

In direct marketing, a 2% response rate would be stellar. 1% is considered excellent these days. And one major direct marketer, who measures these things down to the tenth of a percent, is thrilled with a 0.45% response rate. But different industries will have different benchmarks, so these numbers may not apply to any one specific situation.

Eileen

Okay, I've been thinking more about Paula's comment that queries are like direct marketing campaigns. They are and they aren't. They are alike in that you must really understand your target audience and know what's important to them. But queries aren't like DM in that each query must be custom-crafted for a market of one (the editor of the publication). If you want to reach out to three editors, you have to slant three different queries. With DM, you slant your pitch to the characteristics of the people on the mailing list. The letters I write to marketing directors of dietary supplement companies are written to go to 200 people at a time, not one. As a marketing method, I find it to be one of the most effective, right alongside word-of-mouth referrals.

Lori

Don't we all suffer the lack of confidence at some point, Wendy? You live and learn. 🙂

Devon, that's a problem that can't be fixed. Egos don't belong in writing – not that kind, anyway.

Yes, clips have to be relevant. Totally agree, Paula. I send two to three – no more unless they ask for more. And I send them ONLY if they ask for them, and always in URL form. No attachments – most emails will ferret out attachments to the Spam filter.

Eileen, right now I'm working within a 1-in-8 ratio. Not bad for queries in this market!

Amie

Completely off-topic . . . did you sense a disturbance in the Force today (Monday)? If so, that was me, flying into Philly.

Diane

I DO send the same idea to several magazines, but they're all slanted specifically towards said magazines. In the old days I'd send the exact same query to 6 different magazines thinking I'd be lucky if 1 took it on let alone 6 … and then I had 3 pick one up at once, which was lovely but scary. It went to the highest bidder. 🙂

Lori

You go, Diane! Fantastic news. Don't you love those sweet dilemmas? 🙂

Amie, I did notice – the sun came out! That was you? I wonder – are you still around?

Paula

Thanks for the DM figures, Eileen.

When you wrote: "But queries aren't like DM in that each query must be custom-crafted for a market of one (the editor of the publication). If you want to reach out to three editors, you have to slant three different queries. With DM, you slant your pitch to the characteristics of the people on the mailing list."

That was sort of what I'd intended to get across when I said queries were much like highly-targeted DM campaigns. (Of course, what direct marketer won't argue that his or her campaign is highly targeted just because they insert a person's name. LOL.) Perhaps I should have said "with targeted pin-point accuracy" or something more, well….specific.

For clarification, I never send identical queries to different publications. Even when the subjects are similar, the specifics within each query are slanted to the particular publication.