Giveaway: Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing by Kerrie Flanagan

Hey writers!

I have some amazing news to share with you (as well as a giveaway)! I had the pleasure of writing the foreword for Kerrie Flanagan’s book, the Writer’s Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing—a phenomenal writer’s resource that publishes today. I’m so proud and honored to be a part of this project.

I first met Kerrie back in 2009, when she sent a letter of introduction to WOW! Women On Writing that caught my attention. She talked about her passion for helping writers, her 100+ clips, and her experience starting the Northern Colorado Writers (NCW) organization. She wrote about an NCW conference, where she mingled with authors and agents and pitched article ideas for various departments. I wrote her back immediately, and asked her to write her first piece for WOW, which was How to Pitch to an Agent at a Writers’ Conference, an evergreen article that many writers return to time and time again. Over the years, she’s written articles for WOW on a variety of topics—everything from Feng Shui for Writers to How to Craft a Travel Article About Your Hometown. Kerrie’s strength is coming up with creative ideas that I never would have. Her vision inspires mine. Plus, she’s an expert writer, and her writing style is friendly and knowledgeable, as you’ll see in this book!

Angela & Kerrie's book!

I’ve read many books on the craft of freelance writing, and many, many articles; and this is THE BEST book on magazine article writing I’ve ever read. If you are a writer just starting out or have some clips, but want to land better assignments, this book is gold. As someone who’s worked on both sides of the desk, I can tell you that Kerrie’s advice will save you years of learning the hard way.

Kerrie’s chapter on querying will teach you how to pitch editors effectively and land assignments. It should be required reading for freelancers (IMHO)! She also shows you how to come up with ideas, study a magazine (in an ingenious way I haven’t heard of before) and walks you through each step, providing worksheets to help you track a publication’s needs. She chats with amazing writers, like Andrew McCarthy who shares a kernel that will change the way you think about beginning an article. The editor round-ups are priceless. Editors from publications, like The Costco Connection and Condé Nast Traveler, share their best tips. It feels like you’re sitting across from them having coffee.

And that’s not all. Kerrie provides you with the tools to succeed as a freelancer, including practical tips on goal setting, productivity, and awakening your creative muse. There’s also a chapter on writing and selling personal essays that reads like a mini-book. The chapter on writing for online markets highlights the differences between print and online; and finally, there’s a fascinating chapter on using article writing to build a platform. If you are a fiction writer, you will learn how to pull topics from your novel to craft articles that will help you find readers. And that’s what we all ultimately want, right? To find readers. To build our tribe. To share our ideas with the world.

There’s an inspirational quote from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling: “Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”

Writing and submitting certainly takes nerve, and the possibilities are endless, but courage is not enough. It also takes know-how. That’s what this book can provide. And it’s all in one place! No wading through articles to find all the information you need. It’s nice to have all this fantastic advice in one easy-to-reference package.

To celebrate today’s publication launch, we have a couple of copies to give away. Enter the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win a copy of Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing: A Practical Guide to Selling Your Pitches, Crafting Strong Articles, & Earning More Bylines by Kerrie Flanagan. The giveaway closes Tuesday, July 31 at 12am.

You can also pick up a copy the Writer's Digest Guide to Magazine Article Writing at the Writer’s Digest Shop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, IndieBound, and more!

Kerrie Flanagan

This is seriously a dream come true for me. It’s a thrill to have my name on the cover, right underneath my friend colleague, Kerrie Flanagan.

To find out more about Kerrie, please visit KerrieFlanagan.com. You can also connect with her on Twitter @Kerrie_Flanagan, on Facebook @KerrieFlanaganWriter, and on Instagram @kerrie.flanagan.

Thank you, and I totally appreciate your support!

Follow the advice in Kerrie's book and get your words published.

Write on!

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