Very exciting times around here as I am ecstatic to announce that I’ve been published in a magazine for the very first time. I always wanted to write something worthy of being in a magazine, I just always imagined it would be an exposé or some piece about baseball and how awesome it is.

Instead, my very first published piece is about money. Actually, you may have already read it—Five Money Ratios to Live By appeared on Wisebread back in March. I guess an editor for US Airways Magazine read it, liked it, and wanted to put it in the magazine (which you can read online here). Sweet!

I’m adding some scans of it because that’s what people do when they’re featured in print.

Obviously, the article is longer than that, but what’s the point of scanning the whole thing in here? That’s a bit much.

On an interesting aside, I’ve already gotten one email directly because of this from someone pretty exciting (it’s not Michael Lewis), but more on that later.

Image by notsogoodphotography

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After running through last month’s stats, it got me thinking about how much money is in writing. As most people know, there isn’t much unless you hit the big time. And it’s especially little when you’re starting out. According to the Department of Labor, the median writer/author makes around $48,000, but that includes copywriters and authors in the same group — two totally different types of writing. If you were to devote yourself full time to writing fiction (and magazine articles, say), it could be feast or famine, and most likely famine for a while.

But those numbers are ethereal, so I’m going to share my own numbers with you. I’m going to talk about the money I’ve made by writing fiction, the money I’ve made by writing on this blog and the indirect money I’ve made thanks to my writing.

Writing Fiction

I’ve written TONS of fiction in the last few years, but none of it has been published. I can’t say that right now I’m trying my hardest at it because a lot of my time is going into this site (a source of great conflict right now), and that’s something I need to work on. But I have gotten paid for my fiction. It happened once: one day after work I decided to just go to the library, sit down and write for two hours. That’s all I told myself was going to happen, and I did it. I started writing, threw the first page away, and wrote for the two hours I had allotted myself. I edited the story a couple of times and then submitted it to a writing competition — not thinking much more of it.

Months later I got a letter — I had won a prize: $300. I can’t tell you how good this feeling was. I was being recognized for my writing, there was going to be a ceremony to celebrate it (along with other writers) and I was getting paid for it! I can’t stress enough the importance of the money part — when I told people that a story I wrote earned me $300, they took it seriously— like I must really be good then. Not that I equate one with the other, but money is a language everyone can understand, and getting paid around $100/hour ain’t bad in any profession. The catch, of course, is that I’ve put hundreds of hours into other stories and nothing has come of it.

It wasn’t going to get published, which was the only downer, but I was so pumped and so motivated when I got that letter that I knew I was going places.

Grand total: $300

Blogging and Freelancing

I put up my numbers every month for what I make as “Alternative Income.” That gives an idea of how much money the site as a whole pulls in, but the only direct way to correlate writing for this and “earnings” is by looking at the money I make with my ads. ING referrals are good and all, but they really have nothing to do with my writing. Freelancing is also writing, but not the kind of creative writing I like to do. Both the ad money and freelancing are directly tied to my writing, so that’s why I’m grouping them together.

In October it’ll be a year since I started blogging on The Writer’s Coin, but I didn’t put ads up until around January and I’ve made a total of $32.86 (per hour I make less than small children picking coffee beans in third world countries). Since I started Freelancing, I’ve made a total of $360.

Grand total: $392.86.

Indirect Blogging Money

This site got me my current job — no doubt about it. It’s taught me a lot about social networking, SEO and I’ve learned a lot about finances along the way. But can I put a price on all of that? Sure I can — I can look at how much of a salary bump the new job was over the old one. I can also look at all the money that I’ve made in ING referrals and any other blog-related ventures, which totals to $184.40.

The salary bump I got from my last job to this one was huge, but I don’t want to get into specifics. I will say that it went up 25%, which was an incredible bump.

Grand Total: $184.40 and a 25% salary bump

Final Thoughts

There’s definitely money to be made out there from writing. The question is, what kind of writing do you like best and how much money do you want to make? The answer for me is a tough one — filled with contradictions and conflicts.

I like blogging — I get a platform to instantly publish whatever I want on two topics I find very interesting: writing and money. But lately I’ve become addicted to the stats: pageviews, AdSense clicks, traffic, PageRank, etc. I spend most of my free time on this site, and I don’t like thinking that I’m doing it specifically for the money (which is so little). It’s starting to feel like a job where I just show up and get paid, only my salary is a joke and I hate my boss.

Writing fiction rewards me like nothing else when it comes out right. It’s tough, no doubt, but there’s something magical about it too. Something about freedom and art and creativity that’s hard to nail down. It can make some decent money if you put the work in, but I haven’t been doing that, and I want to change that.

“Writing” is too broad a term to describe all the different kinds of writing you can do to make some money and make a living. Hopefully, ideally, I’ll be able to find a nice middle ground where my fiction is front and center and I can still have a platform (like this one) to say whatever I want and publish it right away.

[this post has been included in the Just Write Carnival over at The Incurable Disease of Writing. Make sure to stop over and check out some of the other articles posted over there]

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I’ve written before about how to get your work out of the slush pile and into the literary magazines that are out there, but the current Poets & Writers has a whole bunch of great tips that apply to writers of all stripes and so I figured I would pass on the knowledge. Let me say this first: this is advice from people who actually know what they’re doing. One guy is an agent and the rest are the people who actually receive stories and pick out which ones get published and which ones do not, so take note of that before you dismiss them. Oh and also, what the hell do I know? I still haven’t been published.

• Don’t be intimidated: There are thousands of people submitting stories, it’s true, but don’t let the odds dissuade you. Stephen Corey of the Georgia Review says, “the bulk of what we receive is not good at all.” This rings true for me—half the stuff I had to read for grad school was boring, and these were very intelligent, capable people. Now think of all the idiots out there sending in their stuff—I feel bad for the editors. I’d feel better if they accepted my stories.
• Follow the guidelines: If a journal says to type up your story in red ink, do it. Paper clips and not staples? Don’t ask questions, just do it. Include a picture of yourself in a military uniform eating a banana? Yes sir! This is your chance to prove you aren’t one of the aforementioned idiots and that you can follow instructions. It shows you did a little bit of homework and aren’t just sending out a thousand copies willy nilly to whoever will take it—that would be “bad.”
• Read journals and mags cover to cover: I understand the idea here—it’s to ensure you know where you write. But it isn’t very practical to go through a hundred of these at any one time to see if your stories match up well. I prefer to read “best of” or anthologies of short stories, as I’ve mentioned before. This way you’re exposed to the best of what’s in those mags and you don’t have to sit through some pretty painful stories. Which, hey, should give you solace because if those stories suck and they got in, so can yours. Try to make sure yours stories don’t suck—hey that’s pretty good advice right there.
• Write a “good” cover letter: Doesn’t have to be brilliant, but drop a couple of hints that show you’ve read the mag so they know you aren’t a schmuck. Mention a story you liked or an author and be direct. Easy, right? Don’t tell them how great your mom thinks the story is. Your mom is a liar.
• From One Story: “Make sure that your first page and last page are flawless.” I agree big time with this one, it’s why I like Flogging the Quill‘s Flogometer challenge—it’s all about grabbing a reader’s attention right from the start. I’ve been quitting books lately because I don’t like forcing myself to read something that I’m not enjoying. I would add that all the work and energy that goes into making a story start out with a bang and end in a rush should be put into each and every page. Makes sense, right? But seriously, look at how much work we put into the beginning of a story—try extending it throughout. Not easy, but it’ll make for better writing. Otherwise they may never make it to your “perfect ending.”
• Investigate: Nat Sobel, a famed literary agent, recommends writers check out the websites of agencies to see who’s on their “roster.” Great advice for people looking for agents. It’s similar to the idea of knowing the mag you’re writing to, it will give you an idea if your writing style matches those of the writers they already represent. This is all about finding a good match, not anyone who will take you. Although, honestly, most of us would be thrilled to be accepted by any agent.
• Don’t rush to submit: Take your time, edit, show it to friends and trusted readers. There is no rush. Don’t time your story to match the submission deadline of any particular competition or literary journal, just write until you feel you can’t get it any better with what and who you have. You have one shot at making a great first impression with this story and you should take advantage of it. It would be like shaving in one minute and throwing on whatever’s on the floor before a first date—not cool.
• Slow down: Another one from Stephen Corey, “If you are truly serious about doing distinctive work that will make its mark, slow down.” This kind of goes back to the previous bullet but it’s worth repeating. Writing (and submitting) in a rush won’t do anything but hurt you. Hurt you real bad.
• Read short stories: If this is what you’re writing, then this is what you should read. It’s all about feeding your brain (and the unconscious) what it needs to produce. If you’re writing a history essay on the Independence (yawn), then you shouldn’t be reading A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

In the end, it comes down to practice and putting in the work. If you’re caught in a bit of a fund in terms of your writing, I would recommend you try to stop worrying (and sitting in front of the blank page) and reading as much as you can. Good stuff, stuff you really love. After you’ve read something that just drop kicked you to the ground, go for a walk and let it sink it. Don’t go to work or check email, take some time to reflect on it and give your mind some time to digest it. Every time I do that I find the ideas start to come.

Maybe I’ll do another post on writer’s block another time. I’ve also been considering posting a short story or two on here, but we’ll see what kind of “demand” there is for that. Now go write and leave me alone.

[the picture at the top is of a "thing" that I saw in Boston once. It looked like a speaker but I still don't know what it was. Looks cool though] 

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Another aborted book. This time it’s The Coast of Chicago by Stuart Dybek. The first few stories weren’t bad (there was one I remember from Best American Short Stories: “Chopin in Winter,” which is great) but after Chopin it just got very boring and very slow. Makes you wonder if there’s anything to this idea of tension and microtension being so important.

So I stopped reading. But a couple of good things did happen: there is one small piece in the book that really reminded me of one of the very first things I ever wrote (once I considered myself a “writer). I really liked it but never really tried to get it out there in any way. But now I found a small piece that really rings the same kind of bell in my head and inside the book it tells me it was published in Triquarterly, based out of Evanston. So I’m going to clean up the piece and send it in.

This is the way it’s supposed to be done. Not blind, massive submissions but focused, smart submissions.

I’ve written about it before but this is probably the first time I’ve put it into action. We’ll see how it goes.

This “smart way” is also the way you’re supposed to apply for a job, as Trent at The Simple Dollar tells us in his review of What Color is Your Parachute.

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I did this last year and unfortunately won’t have time to participate again this year. It’s a great experience even though I never met with of personally talked to anyone in real life while I was doing it.

What is NaNoWriMo? Thousands of people sign up to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. You start from scratch on November 1st and go from there. The website has all kinds of communities and email lists to help people chat about it and swap stories (about writing, not novel stories). There are some pretty good blogs out there too about the experience.

What I found valuable about it: I didn’t make it to 50,000, but it was the first time in my life I dedicated time and energy to the same project, day in and day out, for a month. It took over my life.
“When/how am I going to get my 2,000 words in today?”
It was a lot of fun and I learned a ton about myself as a writer and about writing in general.

Like what? Like writing being an explorational thing. When you wake up every morning and plop yourself down in front of a piece of paper, you’re not ready to just start hammering out 2,000 words on a story you’ve been obsessing about. The details start to haunt you.

For my novel, I had an opening scene in my head—that was it. I didn’t know what happened before or after that, but I knew that was my starting point. After that you’re kind of going with the flow and as I wrote new things started to come up and I would write them down. I discovered things about my characters that I didn’t really “come up with,” I discovered them.

If it all sounds too new agey for you then you are probably the perfect candidate for NaNoWriMo. It’s a very enlightening experience.

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If you’re like me, when you submit your stories, essays, or poetry to literary journals or magazines, you want to give yourself the best chance of getting published. At first glance, that means submitting to as many places as possible.

On my last round of submissions, I sent out two stories to a combined 25 different places. Are those decent odds?

Not really.

Why? Because I don’t know nearly enough about those 25 different publications as I should. It’s advice you hear every day from the editors that read through the piles of submissions (and from published writers)—know something about the magazine before you submit to it.

You see it on every submission guideline too: “Please get a sample issue and familiarize with our magazine.”

But most of us don’t follow that advice.

It’s too much work. They’re just trying to get me to buy an issue from them, for the money. If my work is good enough, it won’t matter.

That last one is especially popular, but I’ve heard it a million times that editors sometimes think a piece is publishable but it’s just not the right place for it. So what is a conscientious writer to do if he/she wants to give him/herself the best chance to get published?

Follow the advice of the people making the decisions and the people who have had success.

Here are a few easy ways to “know where you write:”

- Best American Short Stories/Essays. Buy a couple of the most recent volumes and go through them slowly. All the stories/essays are good, so you’ll be entertained. You’ll also be exposed to the level of writing that you’re aspiring to, which is the whole idea. When you see a particular story/essay that matches up with something you’ve written (or want to write), see which journal/magazine it was published in and send it there.

- Check out these two websites. There are many out there but these two are especially helpful. They can give you a great, quick idea of what each journal is all about, so you aren’t blindly submitting to tons of places. It’s one way of zeroing in on the “right” place for your story/essay. The first one is run by Sara Greenwald, who actually started the site before these journals and magazines had websites—she would actually flip through them at bookstores and take notes.
As a published writer, here are her words of advice:

Writers are often so excited by a newly finished story that the
temptation to send it just anywhere is strong, but editors can really
enjoy a story and still reject it if it’s not right for their magazine.
I’ve gotten scrawled notes like “Love this!” on printed rejections
slips that say “sorry, this is not the type of material our readers
seek.”
- Submit to contests that include a free issue with your entry. There is a lot of debate about contests and reading fees out there, but I wouldn’t rule them out entirely. I personally don’t like to pay $10-$20 just to get my story read, but if I feel I have a particularly strong piece and I know a little something about the magazine/journal, I’ll send it in. Even if you don’t win anything, you’ll get one or two issues back and that will give you a better idea for the next time you submit whether or not you want to send them a particular piece of writing.

You don’t have to buy an issue of every single journal out there, but you do have to do something to get over this concept of “the more I send, the better my odds.”

In the end, being smart and efficient will increase your odds more than quantity will. Also, once you start to develop relationships with the magazines/journals that jive with what you write and who you are, you can get an even better idea of what you need to do to get published.

Good luck!

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