In This Time Of Change, We are Here and Want to Celebrate Your Success

At this time when things feel so uncertain, give yourself grace. It's the best gift you can give to yourself. Don't compare what you are doing to someone else. Trust me, I have to remind myself of this every day when I see some of the amazing things that some moms are doing at home. Or when I hear that a writer is still managing to meet their word count or publishing their books. My friend posted this meme "It's okay" on my Facebook wall this week.

Here's the thing: not only are some of us scared and possibly sick, plus isolated, we are also undergoing all kinds of change--change for us, for our partners, for our children, for our coworkers, for our friends and family. Everyone is under change. And what's that saying?

Change is hard.

Our routines are changed. Maybe you're used to writing at your local coffee shop, and now have to stay at home where it's noisy and chaotic. Maybe you're used to writing once your kids go to school, only now you are home with them all day, every day. Maybe you and your partner share an office, and now are both home at the same time, trying to use it. Whatever the change is big or small, it takes time to get used to it.

So please, allow yourself some time to breathe. If you can write on your typical schedule, that's awesome! Keep it up. If instead right now, it's easier for you to read--that's a way to work on your writing--you're reading in your genre. Even if you're on Facebook, discussing writing with some other writers, that's networking! Look at the positive things you're doing, and do not beat yourself up for the things you aren't able to manage to do right now. It's okay.

Breathe deeply.

We're still in full swing at WOW! if you want to join us. Currently, Angela and I are working on the query letters we received by March 15 and are narrowing down our decisions this weekend. So some of you will have contracts for articles! We have classes starting in our WOW! classroom. We still need Friday Speak Out bloggers--need a platform? Need a place to express your feelings right now? Check out any Friday post and then write your own.

We have contests to enter and judging to do. In the summer and fall, we'll be taking more queries--start brainstorming now. We are a paying market! Next time  I blog, I'm planning to talk about querying us and provide some tips; but if you want to start preparing now, I did a podcast interview with Shelly X. Leonn and LL Montez at The Writers XL podcast. I talk a lot about writing and editing in this interview; but if you're specifically interested in how to write for WOW!, then start listening around the 17-minute mark by clicking here or download the podcast episode where you typically listen to podcasts.

And finally, we need your SUCCESS STORIES! 

In a couple weeks, you'll be getting a  really cool newsletter in your inbox from us (sign up here at the top of the toolbar, if you aren't on our newsletter list yet), and we would love to put your success stories in there, too. Since the beginning of 2020, who has something to celebrate in your writing life? We want to hear about contest wins, publications, goals met, blogs started, new jobs, and more. Please try to keep it under 100 words. Also, include a link if it's something that is online. We really do want any success stories, including things like: "Under self-isolation, I managed to meet my word count each day."

Let us know! Motivate your fellow writers and celebrate. You can email these to Margo at margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com or write them in the comments below. (If Margo does not reply, try margolynndill@gmail (dot) com.)

Take care of yourselves, wonderful writing community.

Margo L. Dill is the managing editor at WOW! Women On Writing. Her next classes are Writing Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction: A Study and Workshop  , starting on March 31 and WRITING A NOVEL WITH A WRITING COACH: One-on-One Instruction , starting April 3. Find out more about her writing and editing at https://www.margoldill.com. 

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7 comments author success, Margo L. Dill, submissions to WOW, success stories, writing motivation, writing through difficult times

Did You Read the Success Stories?

One of my duties at WOW! is to collect success stories, mostly from Facebook and Instagram. Every so often, we put out a call to our social media community asking for anything they feel is a success in their writing career, and the answers we get range from a writer finally writing again after a long hiatus to an author receiving a huge publishing contract or signing with a lit agent. For some reason, the success stories we published in the newsletter last Thursday, February 21, 2019, really touched my heart.

Maybe it's just me, and the place I am in this year--trying to grow my editing business, my writing time and my dedication to the craft and to my dreams. Maybe it's the cold winter days causing me to wish for warmth on the outside and the inside. But whatever it was, I just really enjoyed this section and felt inspired to get busy and get moving on my goals.

For example, look at three of these success stories:

Lynn Assimacopoulos says, “I am a retired Registered Nurse who spent more than thirty-five years working in various areas of nursing. In 2005, at the age of sixty-six, my seventy-one-year-old husband’s health was deteriorating, and I had to retire to care for him, twenty-four hours a day. During that time, I questioned as to what I could still do, as I also was getting older and at home all the time. The answer came to me rather quickly: It was writing. Eventually in 2000, when I was in my sixties, I had actually written a devotional book called, I Thought There Was a Road There…. Several years later, my husband passed away, and I also began to have some health problems. I now could not do many physical activities at that point; however, I could still write, and since then, I have written and published another nonfiction book called, Separated Lives. I would urge interested senior citizens to explore this opportunity.”

How can you not be encouraged by her inspirational words and her tenacity to write, even during difficult times?

Or I love this one:

Kimberly Butnick says, “I write a blog and think it might be something that could be something: Living On the Edge of The Desk. I teach in a small high school in Wisconsin, and I love to share the funny stories that happen throughout my day. I started to post on Facebook the weekly funnies. I was getting some great feedback from people and was encouraged to write a book about my adventures. I was having a hard time putting this format into a book and decided to start a blog. I started October 5th; and by November 5th, I had over 1,000 hits and 100 followers.”

She followed through on a suggestion after sharing stories on Facebook--and even though the first thing she tried--a book--didn't seem to work out, she started a blog, and it is working out. More tenacity here!

Or this story of NEVER GIVING UP!

Wilma Hollander says, “Never give up! For twenty years I had a dream: I wanted to write romance novels for Harlequin, even though I'm Dutch, and English is not my native language. I came far in various contests, but not far enough. So, I took a side road. I became a Dutch published romance writer, but…in 2018, I accomplished my dream, writing and publishing the first Dutch(!) trilogy for Harlequin/HarperCollins Holland. Yep, I'm officially a Harlequin writer now!”

And the thing is, Muffin readers, these are REAL people who we can interact with every day on social media, who are sharing their success so that you too can live your dreams and one day, share your success.

I know sometimes your email inbox gets full, and you put off reading a longer email until you have time. But I encourage you that if you haven't read the Issue 90 email that made it to your inbox last week, make time to do it. And don't skim over the success stories. If you thought these three were great, then there are a ton more where these came from.

And as always, you can send your own success story (we like them to be 100 words or less) to me at Margo@wow-womenonwriting.com or respond to one of our social media posts when we put them up.

Stay warm, get inspired, and keep writing!

Sign up for Margo's Writing a Novel with a Writing Coach, which starts on Friday, March 1, and you will soon have your own success story to shout about!

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5 comments author success, celebrate success, Margo L. Dill, success stories, winter blahs

Odds and Ends: Recipes for Writers, Success, and Social Media

Many of you may know that I am WOW!'s social media manager, and with this job comes great responsibility. (smiles) One of those responsibilities is to make sure readers know what wonderful things have been going on with our social media accounts. Here are three happenings from social media lately, in case you missed them. And if you haven't followed us on these lovely places yet, please do. We just added a fourth!

Recipes on Facebook
One evening, after a full day of work and writing, I wondered: what do people make for dinner on these types of days? So I turned to our loyal Facebook fans to ask for some advice, and we received a lot of great comments. Here's what the original post said:

Anybody want to share quick meal recipes for those writing days when you or your family still need to eat?

Here are a few of the great ideas we received: 

• Fry a couple eggs, top with ham and cheddar cheese, and serve on toast--a "brinner" sandwich. Total cooking time: 5 minutes
• A garden full of vegetables lends itself to large salads and stir fry
• Minute rice with black beans, seasoned with taco seasoning. Then you can add toppings: cheese, sour cream, salsa, etc
• Kristy from the website, PaidWrite, supplied a link to a post she did about 7 Crock Pot meals for when "you have to work nights". You can see that here. 
• And Maggie Kate Harris said to check out her book: Travel Food: Recipes for Wanderers and Lazy Cooks 

Success stories (Twitter, FB, and Pinterest):
On our social networks, we often put a call out for success stories for our WOW! readers and subscribers. We love to hear about your writing success, small or large. We publish these periodically in a newsletter that is sent to email subscribers, who love to read about other writers' success. (Sign up for our free newsletter on our home page if you haven't yet!) If you have a recent success (book published, blog started, contest win, agent secured, etc), then please let us know in 100 words or less, and email to me (margo@wow-womenonwriting (dot) com) in the next week. She already has several, but we are always looking for more and more. Here's an example:

Molly A. Writer just won the best contest ever with her short story "Made For You." You can read the story on THIS WEBSITE (link). She also self-published her memoir, You Bet I Can, available here (link)

Pinterest and soon to be Instagram
If you missed my post about a month ago, WOW! is now on Pinterest, and we are building a lot of boards, full of great resources, from contest and publishing opportunities to information for fiction writers to marketing ideas. You can find all of that here, so follow us! I also started our brand new Instagram account today, so you can follow us here.

We know social media can eat up your time, and we don't want to do that. But we like to highlight wonderful things writers are doing, share our classes and contest, send a smile or inspirational quote, and build a community of writers on these sites. So join us if you are already active on one, and we'll see you there.


We'd love to hear below how you use social media OR your recipe ideas. . .

Margo L. Dill is the social media manager for WOW! Women On Writing. She is also a writing instructor in the WOW! classroom where she teaches writing a novel with a writing coach. 

Crock pot photo above by Janine on flickr.com

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5 comments Margo L. Dill, recipes, social media, success stories

Send Us Your Success Stories and Friday Speak Out Posts

We want to hear from you!

Success Stories

We need your publication and/or writing success stories. These can be about a book traditionally or self-published, contest wins, blogs started or anniversary dates, short stories published, and more. Anything you see as a success in your writing life in the past 6 months--we want to hear about it, so we can publish it in our next newsletter.

Here are two examples we collected from Facebook and Twitter (which brings me to another point, if you aren't following us on those, you are missing out on opportunities!):

• Lauretha Ward signed a book contract with Mascot Books for release of a children’s book in 2017. She also released a new book in November 2016 titled, Resting On His Promises: I am Covered From A to Z, published by Life to Legacy. http://mindshapeup.com/resting-on-his-promises-i-am-covered-from-a-to-z
• Christine Rodriguez submitted her first story in 30 years to a contest. “It just felt wonderful to be writing again!” she said.

To add yours to the list, please email margo (at) wow-womenonwriting.com with Success Stories in the subject line OR add your success story to the comments after this blog post. Don't forget any URLs that you want to include.

Friday Speak Out 

Friday Speak Out posts are not paid, but they are the perfect opportunity to collect a publication credit, market yourself in front of a new audience, or introduce yourself to the writing community.

The guidelines are simple and WE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR POSTS!

Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

To see some recent examples of what we have published for Friday Speak Out posts, click the links below:

• http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2016/12/friday-speak-out-how-to-write-better.html
• http://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2017/02/friday-speak-out-writing-group-5-great.html
• or check out ANY Friday post. . .

If you have any questions about Friday Speak Out, please contact Marcia at the email address above.

Happy writing! 

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2 comments Friday Speak Out, success stories

We Would Like to Hear From You: Success Stories and More

We would love to hear from our readers. We need some success stories for a newsletter that is hopefully coming out this week. What have you been up to this fall? It can be a contest win, a published book, a new blog, a writing goal you met--what success have you had since the kids went back to school? Please leave it in the comments below in 100 words or less. It would be helpful if you wrote it in this format:

Name is happy to announce: "NEWS and any links you want people to know about." 

NaNoWriMo is coming up, and we would like to hear your tips. Have you done it in the past? What worked for you? What didn't? We would also like to publish these in the newsletter with a link to your blog, website, or Amazon book, so please write your tip in the comment below, sign your name, and include a link.

Don't forget, our fall flash fiction contest is open, so if you are not into writing 50,000 words this November, write 750 and send it into our contest. Finalists are judged by a literary agent to pick the top 20! You can find more information here: http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/contest.php

Finally, you can find all these announcements and more if you join our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter. We update every day, and sometimes more than once.

To join our Facebook page, please visit us here: https://www.facebook.com/WOW-Women-On-Writing-135164411877/

To follow us on Twitter, please go here: http://www.twitter.com/womenonwriting

We hope to hear from you! Leave us a comment with your success story or NaNoWriMo tip before Wednesday morning.

photo by alibree (http://www.flickr.com) 

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3 comments Facebook, fall flash fiction contest, success stories, twitter

Magazine Query Letter Success Story

Because I’m a visual learner, reading examples of query letters that actually nabbed assignments in magazines and newspapers is always of great interest to me. So for today's post, I dug through my old files and found a query that landed me my first assignment with The Writer back in 2009. Enjoy!

Dear Ms. (Name of Editor),

As a freelance writer, I do not hide the fact that I am a magazine junkie, and I particularly enjoy reading magazines like The Writer that offer helpful, informative tips for my career in a straightforward format. In recent issues, I enjoyed Julia Tagliere's article on how to write about friends and families without alienating them in the process (October), as well as Debbie Geiger's advice on how to use social-networking sites more efficiently in freelance writing (August).

After I had my first child six years ago, I began reading every book I could get my hands on about freelance writing so I could learn how to develop a career that would allow me to set my own hours. Like many aspiring parent writers, I sent off a few article ideas via snail mail to the big parenting publications like Babytalk, Parents and Parenting. For the most part, I never got any responses back, except for one horribly photocopied stock rejection letter that almost crushed my dreams of writing about parenting forever.

However, I took some of those same queries and sent them out to a few local regional parenting publications, and within a few months, had made several sales. For the next few years, I wrote locally and even got a job as a stringer for the daily newspaper. Eventually, I took a job as an associate editor at the regional parenting publication that had given me my first break, where I made a startling discovery -- there was a lot more opportunity for publication in regional parenting publications than I had originally thought.

I always take a special interest in the "Market Focus" of your publication, and I've noticed there is one market in particular that hasn't been profiled in the past two years -- regional parenting magazines. Like me, many writers think if they don't live in a city like Atlanta, they really don't have any business writing for Atlanta Parent. Not so, I realized. Regional parenting publications may have a much lower pay scale than the nationals, but most writers have a better shot of getting published in these magazines, and if they market themselves properly, they can generate a steady reprint income. I'd like to propose a 1,200-word article titled "Writing for the Other Parenting Magazines" for your "Market Focus" section. In the article, I will discuss the types of articles and essays regional parenting publications seek, the importance of checking editorial calendars, lead times, reprint possibilities and evergreen topics many of these publications seek each month. "Writing for the Other Parenting Magazines" will also include a sidebar titled "Five Ways to Sell a Parenting Article in a Regional Publication."

I am a freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous regional parenting publications. I am a former associate editor of Charlotte Parent and also a contributing writer at www.iParenting.com.
My article, "Alternative Treatments for Autism," recently took first place honors in the magazine  feature article category of the 2009 Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition. I am including the clip in the body of this e-mail.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this article idea.


I'd love to hear your query success stories!

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who blogs at Renee's Pages.

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5 comments query letters, Renee Roberson, success stories, Writing for magazines, writing for regional publications

Friday Speak Out!: Requested Material, Guest Post by Beth Cato

As I prepared for my first writers' conference back in 2008, I encountered a tip: buy a rubber stamp that says "Requested Material." That way, when you're sending out expected manuscripts and contracts, the agent or editor knows you're not part of the slush. I didn't have a single publication to my name, but my brain swirled with happy dreams. I had a finished novel that I knew--absolutely knew--was going to snare an agent during my pitch session. I had to be ready.

In a matter of hours, I ordered myself a custom, self-inking stamp for "Requested Material." I'd get to use that thing in no time. Right?

I attended the conference. I had two requests for the partial of my novel--yay! Publishing contract, here I come! However, the agents wanted the submissions by email. I was happy to save some money, but it also meant my brand new stamp didn't get used. Ah well. They'd need my signature eventually.

Months passed. The agents never responded. The reality of the whole writing life set in. There were no shortcuts. No stamping opportunities, either.

In despair, I trunked the novel. I devoted myself to short stories instead. Rejections trickled in. Then--finally--an acceptance, for a nonfiction story to a big publisher! I printed out my contract. Tears filled my eyes when I used that "Requested Material" stamp for the first time.

It's silly, really, that using a rubber stamp can mean so much, but it did. It was validation after a ton of rejections. My work was requested, expected--respected. Sure, I wasn't using the stamp to fulfill my ultimate goal of a novel contract, but this acceptance would boost the skinny bio paragraph in my query letters.

I kept writing and submitting my work. The stamp gained a sheen of dust, but every few months, I'd pull it out for another short story contract. I wrote another novel. The angels sang in chorus the day I signed with a literary agent. I kept working. Months passed. I slogged through another novel. Meanwhile, the rubber stamp was being used on a more regular basis for story contracts.

Then, it finally happened.

The journey took five years. Five years, hundreds of rejections, and more tears than I can count.

On July 4th of this year, I signed my novel contract with a big six publisher. And you better believe that I had that rubber stamp on hand and ready to go. Vivid red ink emblazoned the front and back of that priority mail envelope, the words there for all the world to see: "Requested Material."

Maybe the infrequent use was a good thing, as the ink is still as bold as when I bought it. Fine by me. I hope to get plenty more use out of that stamp in the years to come.

* * *

 

Beth Cato's stories can be found in Nature, Flash Fiction Online and Daily Science Fiction. HarperCollins Voyager will release her steampunk novel THE CLOCKWORK DAGGER in late 2014. She's originally from Hanford, California, but now resides in Arizona with her husband and son. Her fiction, poetry, and tasty cookie recipes can be found at http://www.bethcato.com.
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Would you like to participate in Friday "Speak Out!"? Email your short posts (under 500 words) about women and writing to: marcia[at]wow-womenonwriting[dot]com for consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

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9 comments becoming published, Beth Cato, contracts, Friday Speak Out, rejections, success stories

Should You Self-Publish Your Own Work?

Photo by Gayle Shomer Photography

I have a journal with the following quote embossed into the leather cover:

“If you wish to be a writer, write.”

I remind myself of that constantly, especially when I feel discouraged that my career is stalled. Nowadays, I feel like there should also be some inspirational quotes out there relating to publishing. Two or three years ago, I wouldn’t have even considered self-publishing my own work. But lately, it seems like every time I turn around, I find myself face to face with writers who have taken control of their careers and followed successful and satisfying journeys into self-publishing. I find myself more intrigued and inspired by the prospect each day.

I know that when I first started writing professionally ten years ago, there was still a bit of a stigma attached to self-publishing, particularly through vanity presses that virtually published anything as long as the authors were willing to pay the price.

But times have definitely changed. There are still writers who would prefer to try their hand at traditional publishing first, and that’s perfectly fine. But there are some cases where self-publishing can actually help strengthen an author’s platform or garner enough attention to attract a traditional publisher down the road.

I recently interviewed a local writer who decided to publish her historical fiction novel after she had actually secured an agent. While the agent loved this author’s work and they had a great business relationship, the agent was unable to interest any publishing houses in the book because of the subject matter and genre. Instead of giving up, this author started work on a second historical fiction novel and pursued publishing the book on her own. She developed a marketing plan and drew up a list of book review blogs to contact and even garnered a positive review from the Sacramento Book Review. I checked on Amazon and as of this writing, the book has almost 30 reviews and has an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars.

Now, granted, this author has a full-time day job and writes fiction on the side like many of us, but she was positive and encouraging as she chatted with me about her experience. She did stress that you shouldn’t self-publish impulsively but that it is definitely something writers should consider if they are getting good feedback from agents and editors but are stalled at finding a publishing contract.

While I am in the process of shopping around my middle-grade novel, I’ve also begun considering self-publishing either a novella or collection of short stories digitally. I personally know a few writing instructors who have found success in micro-publishing resource guides as PDFs and it is definitely something I want to explore further as a way to help grow my platform before I hopefully publish traditionally.

Here are a few articles on self-publishing that I think are helpful:
Divergent Paths to Publication
Which Publishing Path is Right for You?
Self-Publishing: The Debate is Over

Have you ever self-published your work? What did you like or not like about the process?

Renee Roberson is an award-winning freelance writer and editor who blogs at Renee’s Pages.

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10 comments author platforms, Renee Roberson, self-publishing, success stories, traditional publishing