Monday, August 10, 2009

To Market, To Market...Finding Markets for Your Work

In honor of Wednesday's guest blogger, who will be talking about markets for children's writing, I thought I would make "markets" sort of the theme for this week.

Most writers know that having an idea is one thing, but finding an appropriate market for that idea is another triumph all its own. I've gotten plenty of rejections because my idea "wasn't quite right" for the publication, they recently ran a similar story, or they have a similar one in progress. I've also had to tweak queries because the idea was rejected by more than one editor. It happens.

If you're just getting started in the wonderful world of freelancing and you're looking for markets for your work, below is a brief list of the ones I typically use:

WritersWeekly.com. This free weekly newsletter includes Success Stories, feature articles, and an extensive list of paying markets and freelance jobs. The markets are indexed, so you can scroll through their listings whenever you want.

Wooden Horse Publishing. You must subscribe to the service in order to access their complete markets database, but you can sign up to receive their free weekly newsletter that includes new markets, industry news, and other info of interest to freelancers.

Absolute Write. This is a free site that includes extensive market listings (including a few greeting card companies), screenwriting markets, and other paying freelance jobs.

If there is a publication you're interested in writing for and you can't locate it on any of the above sites, do a Google search and see if the publication has contributor guidelines available. They can sometimes be difficult to locate, but I've had luck with the "About Us" or "Contact Us" pages if there's no tab specifically for writers or submission guidelines.

Happy Writing!

1 comment:

  1. try wordhustler.com too- tons of free market listings.

    ReplyDelete