SMALL VICTORIES
SMALL VICTORIESShari L. Coxford © 1993As a struggling writer, I have read dozens of "How-To" books and articles: pieces designed to inform us how to sell, market, make money, and otherwise succeed financially with our writing. Many of these fall short, assuming that we already have published clips, contacts with someone in the publishing business, friends who have contacts, have worked for a newspaper or other such improbable achievement; or they tell us where to break in but not how. Two books in particular stand as mute evidence of "how-to" books that somehow failed me: one touted how anyone could make enough money as a writer to support themselves, and the author went on to explain how she broke into various commercial and business-writing markets as well as magazine markets. "If this hitherto unknown writer could do it," I thought, "so can I." As my rejection pile grew larger and my wallet grew thinner, I reread the book hoping to discover my mistakes. What I discovered was that this author, the one who told me "anyone can do it," had also spent several years working for a newspaper before breaking into these other markets. The second, who explained how she succeeded in selling her articles and stories to magazines, and how subsequently you and I can using the same techniques, turned out to be the daughter of a prominent agent. These two "experts" had an "in," one that the rest of us peons undoubtedly lack, and one that may prohibit their methods of success from working for us as well. Many inspirational pieces by successful writers also warn us not to sell ourselves short: i.e., don't sell our marvelous writs to magazines who pay piddly little amounts. They may define "piddly" as $1,000 or $500 or $200 for a piece that they wrote in one afternoon, and go on to brag about a sale which earned them $2,500 for first rights and another $750 for reprint rights. Warning: If you do not have the track record that these writers often do, you may end up earning a big fat ZERO if you limit your submissions to magazines that only pay BIG BUCKS. Us peons have to build a track record first, which often means selling our souls for a measly fifty bucks. But let's think about that figure realistically for a moment. If you write and polish a particular piece in less than an afternoon, for example, and sell it for fifty bucks, then you've earned $50 for one afternoon's work. Multiply that by five and you've earned $250 a week, enough for this writer to live on quite comfortably (assuming of course, that you succeed in selling five pieces a week). And since so many other writers are being taught to turn their noses up at such piddly fees, those markets are often begging for writers like us who'll cheerfully accept $12.50 an hour ($50 divided by the four hours it took to write the piece). Wouldn't you rather earn $12.50 an hour as a writer than $8 or $10 an hour as a bookkeeper, or waitress, or sales clerk? Think about it. ======================================================== You may reprint this in newsletters and on Web pages as long as you |
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