Hang out where your readers do.
Since I’ve begun editing the magazine for a national organization, I’ve made a point each month to drive an hour-and-a-half one way to attend a chapter meeting. It’s not the club business that attracts me, but the conversations before and after.
They’re some of my best opportunities to connect with members’ concerns. If the publication’s going to scratch where they itch, … Continue reading
Are you the exception to the rule?
Editors and agents are used to writers who want to break the rules. We don’t like it, but we’re used to it.
“No phone inquires,” one agency said in its entry in the Christian Writer’s Market Guide. “No exceptions. Don’t ask to be the exception.”
An editor friend produces compilation books, often dealing with 100 potential contributors for a single … Continue reading
In your intro, dare to sound like yourself.
Are you looking for a way to turn off readers in your first paragraph? Try to impress them.
That’s what two amateur writers did in articles I reviewed this past week.
Rather than sound like themselves, they tried to sound like writers — or at least the way through thought writers sounded. Their introductions were long-winded and pompous, … Continue reading