New Writers
If
you've always liked the idea of writing then why not put that thought
into practice today? The scope for freelance writers is immense. You
could write articles for newspapers, e-zines, websites or Blogs; features
for monthly or weekly magazines. You could enter your short stories
into competitions or submit them to women's weeklies for publication.
Or you could try TV scriptwriting, greeting card inscription or even
write that novel you've always dreamt of. Many authors began their careers
writing short stories for magazines or as newspaper columnists and journalists,
including Helen Fielding (author of Bridget Jones' Diary) and Jane Green
(best-selling chick-lit author).
A
creative imagination is required together with a good grasp of grammar,
punctuation and spelling. Pay varies depending on which area you work
in but generally short stories fetch anything from £50.00 to £400
per story and features/articles are paid per word count. You can find
current rates at The
National Union of Journalists
But
before you put pen to paper it would be a good idea to either take a
writing course or buy a good book or two to enhance your skills and
learn how to present work to editors.
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Books to help with your
Writing
There are many books that could help you to improve
your writing skills, here are a few we've selected:
The
Magnificent 7. A complete suite of creative writing e-books and
writing workshops offered by Writelink, which you can download from
their site for £15.00. Topics covered are:
- Writing for magazines
- Novel writing
- Short story writing
- Poetry
- Researching family history
- Basic grammar
- Tech tips for writers
The purchase of The Magnificent 7 will also give you 12 months free
membership to Writelink's online writing community. Find
out more here....
You may also find the following books useful:
How
to Write Short Stories for Magazines and Get Them Published by Sophie
King
On
Writing by Stephen King
How
to Write and Sell Short Stories by Della Galton
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Writing Courses
provided by e-learn
Writing Short Story Course
Syllabus
- Plot Planning
- Writing Effective Stories
- Essential Fiction Know-How
- The Way to Characterize
- Selling Short Stories
Find
out more about this course here....
Writing for Children
Syllabus includes:
- The Basic Techniques of Freelance Journalism
- Why do you want to write for children?
- Writing for different age groups
- Fiction for all ages
- Techniques in Children's fiction writing
- More about techniques
- What are your markets?
Find
out more about this course here....
Writing Historical Fiction
Syllabus
- Can You Write Historically?
- Researching the Historical Novel
- Writing for Children
- Writing for Teenagers
- Structure, Publishing
Find
out more about this course here....
Writing Salable Articles
Syllabus includes:
- The Fastest Way to Writing Success
- Researching the Article
- Types of Articles
- Libel and Defamation
- Journalism
- Writing for Magazines
Find
out more about this course here...
You may also find the following courses interesting:
Writing
Biographies, Autobiographies and Family History
Writing
and Selling Travelogues
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Writing Short Stories for
the Magazines
The short story market is very competitive and getting published is
by no means easy. However, it can be achieved if you work hard and persevere.
Preparation is vital for short stories as you will be sending in unsolicited
work, which may or may not be accepted for publication. The first thing
to do is study the market you wish to write for and learn how to write
and submit short fiction to editors.
A good starting point is to read a few helpful books such as:
-
How to Write Short Stories for Magazines and Get Them Published by Sophie
King
-
Creating a Twist in the Tale: How to Write Winning Short Stories for
Women's Magazines (How to books. Successful writing)
-
Writing Short Stories and Articles: How to Get Your Work Published in
Newspapers and Magazines
You
can buy writing guides from Amazon or any good book shop, or you can
loan them from your local library. If your library doesn't stock the
title you require you can ask them to order it in for you for a small
fee. Also consider taking a creative writing course such as the Writing
Short Story Course offered by e-learn.
Once
you feel that you are ready to submit your short stories to magazine
editors you should obtain a copy of each magazine's short story guidelines,
as each publication has their own style and requirements. You can do
this by writing to the fiction editor and requesting a copy of their
guidelines. Always remember to include a stamped, self addressed envelope
with your enquiry for a convenient reply.
It
is highly advisable to study several issues of the magazine you aim
to write for before submitting your manuscript in order to get a general
gist and understanding of the publication's requirements. This would
better your chances of success. Good luck!
Study the Short Story Market
If you want to write short stories for magazines
the best way to learn is by studying the market you aspire to write
for. We recommend:
Diamonds
and Pearls - A sparkling collection of short story gems!
This anthology, which was published in February
2011, has a beautiful collection of short stories by some very well
known and successful women's magazine writers including Sophie King,
Jane Wenham-Jones and Della Galton. You'll find 34 relevant stories
in this volume, some of which have been previously published in women's
magazines such as Take a Break and Women's Weekly and The People's Friend.
We highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to break into the
short story market. This is a charity anthology, which means that some
of the proceeds will go to the charity againstbreastcancer.
You can buy Diamonds
and Pearls from Amazon.
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Writing Competitions
FirstWriter
Offers
a complete guide to writing competitions and includes details, links
and entry information - some competitions are free to enter!
This offer is currently available in the UK,
USA and Australia.Click
Here for more details
Writers'
Forum Short story Competition with a first
prize of £300.00, second prize of £150.00 and third prize
of £100.00. Any genre - stories must be between 1000 and 3000
words. Entry fee is £6.00 or £3.00 if you are a Writers'
Forum subscriber. And it is worth subscribing to this publication.
Writers'
News Writers' News
and Writing Magazine run monthly competitions and offer a variety of
prizes and publication either online or in their magazine. Short story
and poetry entries are £4, and £3 for subscribers. Full
competition rules appear in each issue of Writing Magazine and Writers'
News.
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Poetry
Competitions
FirstWriter
is now running their popular International Poetry
Competition. Entry fees are as follows:
Enter 1 Poem at £3.00
Enter 3 Poems at £2.50 each
Enter 5 Poems at £2.00 each
Enter 10 Poems at £1.50 each
The prize money for the winning entry is £500.00 (over $750). Second
prize wins £100 for best UK entry and $150.00 for best USA entry.Ten
special commendations will also be awarded and all the winners will be
published in firstwriter.magazine and receive a free year's subscription
to the site worth $29.99 / £19.99! Use this
link for further details and entry form.
Writers'
Forum run a poetry competition with a first
prize of £100.00 plus publication in their magazine. Three runners
up will receive a Chambers dictionary. Only original and unpublished poems
considered. Entry fee is £5.00 for the first poem and £3.00
for each additional poem.
Writers'
News Writers' News and Writing Magazine run
regular poetry competitions. Entries are £4, and £3 for subscribers.
Full competition rules appear in each issue of Writing Magazine and Writers'
News.
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Earn cash writing Online
Articles
Did you know that you could earn extra cash by writing
online articles? No? Then read on. People all over the world are earning
cash right now for articles they have written on their chosen subject.
Article Directories are eager to publish articulate, interesting and
useful features on their pages that will interest their readers and
keep them coming back for more. Buyers need articles for their Blogs,
Websites, Newsletters and various other projects, so the potential to
sell is enormous. As well as earning some extra cash, online article
writing can earn you recognition as a writer. However, the price paid
per piece isn't particularly high so don't expect to make a lot of money
from this, unless, of course, you write hundreds of articles a week.
Still interested? More info below....
CONSTANT
CONTENT is a marketplace that sells your
articles, reviews, tutorials and Blog entries online to webmasters and
bloggers in need of original copy for their sites, newsletters or magazines.
They supply the customer and you supply the copy. Material can be on
any subject and length can be up to 2000 words but it must be your original
work. They offer variable price structures such as 'Usage', which
means that the piece can be bought over and over again, 'Unique',
which means that it is sold with a unique license for single use only
and removed from the Constant Content website once its been sold or
'Full Rights', which means that once your piece is sold it is
owned by the buyer who can then publish it and use his or her own byline,
resell it or make changes to it. It will also be removed from the Constant
Content database to ensure exclusivity to the owner. Please note that
selling your work on Full Rights means that you relinquish all
rights to it. You can also sell your article on a Best Offer
basis, which means that you do not request a price but wait for buyers
to make you an offer. You may accept or decline any offer made by a
client.
You could write film, book or T.V. reviews, tutorials on your expert
subject, or articles on any topic. Once you've gone through the free
registration process you can start uploading your articles for submission.
If they're approved they will be listed in the correct category along
with your requested fee and terms of usage. Constant Content will take
a percentage of your fee so please bear this in mind when setting your
price.
As well as instant submissions you can also
make money from custom requests and private requests, once you've become
established. Expect to receive several public requests a day, which
will arrive into your email inbox that you provide at registration.
The buyer will outline details of the article requested and will also
include word length, keywords (if necessary), payment details and how
many articles are required. You can study the offer and accept or reject
it. If you decide that you'd like to undertake the project then you
can use the link at the bottom of the email to contact the buyer.
Payment is in USD converted to GBP paid via
Paypal at the beginning of each month providing the customer's payment
has cleared and your account has reached the $50.00 (£25.00) threshold.
Please ensure before submitting your work to Constant Content that it
has been proofread as they are very stringent about punctuation and
grammar. For further details on writing for Constant Content you can
find
out more here.
Important: Please read all listed sites
terms and conditions and FAQ section carefully before entering into
a contract with them as they may have made changes to their policy statements
since this article's publication.
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Work From Home As
An Online Content Writer (includes Data Entry work)
If you'd like to work as an Online Content Writer
then consider joining a Project Work Marketplace Platform such as FREELANCER.COM
What is a Project Work Marketplace
Platform? It's a corporate marketplace for buyers and freelancers. Web-Content,
Copywriting, Proofreading and Data Entry jobs are offered on the site
by the buyers to members. An estimated rate of pay is given as a guide
for completion of each project. The Writers then bid for the job giving
their fee and date of completion. This gives the buyer an opportunity
to view your profile and if he/she finds that you fit the criteria,
you will be offered the job. The more jobs that you accept and undertake
the more your profile will shine and consequently you will be offered
more work. This will enable you to build a good client base. Jobs are
offered on a daily basis. Our house writer receives several emails a
day with up to ten jobs in each message (too much for her to cope with!).
Jobs offered include articles (subject, word length and keywords specified),
forum participation, blog entries, email copy, web content, press release
articles, e-books and more.They also offer editing and proofreading
work.
Registration is free but they do offer tiered
memberships that might be beneficial, which is something you can check
out once you are satisfied that this type of work is for you.
Once you become a member you can either receive details of new listings
or you can log into your account and use the simple search facility
to find jobs you'd like to undertake.
Although this type of writing work isn't as well paid
as some other markets there is plenty of work on offer, so the more
you write, the more you will earn. If you are successful, you can make
a living from this - but be prepared to put in the hours, work to deadlines
and do some research.
For completed work you will be paid via the Project
Marketplace Sites. You may then withdraw these earnings directly into
your Paypal or Bank Account. Some sites
also pay by cheque. Please view each sites payment terms before accepting
any work as they may differ. A moderate fee will be taken from your
earnings once you have been paid. All fees are listed on Freelancer.com.
Please make sure that you are
familiar with their rules from the onset of your membership.
Freelancer.com
is a global site and has freelancers and buyers in the UK, USA, India,
Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Payment is made promptly by Paypal, E-Gold,
Wired Transfer, or Moneybookers. Get A Freelancer is a great way to
find jobs in your professional field and will work wonders for your
CV. If you'd like to sign up or if you'd like more information then
visit Freelancer.com.
Registration is free. Get A Freelancer
is operated by Plendo Sweden AB, which is a Swedish limited company
and wholly owned subsidiary of Innovate It. Gothenburg AB.
Important: As
always, please read the company's terms and conditions and privacy policies
before entering into any binding contract.
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