Hey, Have You Started it Yet?

With any writing task, it can be hard to know where to begin

Hi writer family! It’s Kelly here, from Medium.

Knowing where to send your work as a writer or how to land that first job can be overwhelming. I remember how long it took me to submit something for publication, mostly because I felt like such a newbie! I had no idea what I was doing or how to pitch an editor.

Even on places like Medium, it can be hard to figure out how and where to submit your work.

I remember that “where-the-heck-do-I-start” feeling. That’s why I’ve created resources like this for you to make it a bit easier. They will always be free because I believe there are so many amazing writers out there, like you, that just need a small hand-up to get in the door. I had fantastic mentors and editors who helped me get started and I want to pass that on to the next level of rising writers.

For today’s newsletter, I’ve collected a few resources that will hopefully get you to the next level in your writing career:

Freedom with Writing sends out emails notifying you of writing jobs, contests, websites that pay, themed submissions, and scholarships for writers.

Authors Publish Magazine sends out emails and useful resources for finding publishers that pay for articles and short stories, and connect you to the right publisher for your book.

Who Pays Writers? is an anonymous, crowd-sourced list of which publications pay freelance writers and how much.

Duotrope is another source of publishers and agents. There is a fee for using this site. I haven’t tried it out yet but there is a free trial so you can check it out and see if it suits you.

Study the publication or website well before you submit. A main reason editors pass on a piece is because it doesn’t fit the style of their publication or they’ve just published something very similar.

Get to know what they publish, who their audience is, and read some of their stories. There’s no point pitching an article titled “Fashion over 60” to a magazine whose audience is millennial women!

Remember how we talked last week about serving our editors and readers? This is where it applies. Alter your story to one that they’d want—or pitch it somewhere it will fit.

Now for your pitch. Here’s my free pitching template as a starting point. (That’s the friend link so you don’t even need to worry about hitting Medium’s paywall.)

If you’re a Medium writer, here’s my guide for submitting to Medium publications. That has links to some of the trickier submission emails too. I don’t know why they make it so hard sometimes!

And if you’re struggling to finish your first article, consider sending your draft to my mentoring program. It doesn’t need to be polished! In fact, the rough ones are great because then we have lots to work with.

See you next Wednesday

P.S. Do you find these emails helpful? Are you reading them? They take work to write so I want to make sure I’m covering things that you want to know. Would you do me a favour? Flick me an email and let me know. Cheers, Kelly