I Failed at My New Plan for the Freelance Writing But I Will Try Again

 

 

From Monday through Friday, there are several things that I do throughout my day. They usually fall under these categories:

 

Book Review (reading books I review, writing the reviews, posting and sharing reviews)

Writing (I try to write something new every day)

Freelance Writing (fiction, essays, poetry, articles)

Author (either writing, revising or editing a book – and doing book promo!)

Self-Publishing (rare but I do this sometimes)

The SPARREW Newsletter (gathering material, interviewing people, finding people to interview)

 

And, as Dawn Wilson, I’m usually reading or editing submissions for Twisted Dreams Press. I also try to do promo work for the press when that need arises.

 

(Note: Colclasure is my maiden name. All of my writings are published under this name. As Dawn Wilson, however, I am an editor and marketing rep. Wilson is my married name. I’m also a wife and mother!)

 

And in addition to publishing my own newsletter every month, I also publish and promote The Big Scream, which is the newsletter for Twisted Dreams Press. Unlike my own newsletter, these go out any time.

 

The work I do for both the press and my newsletter can take several hours to complete.

 

During the weekends, I do website updates, send out my latest Substack, do the book reviewing, hunt for new markets to submit to, work on my books, continue research for either a book or an article, and try to write something.

 

So, yeah, my days are pretty full. Which is why I’m not going to beat myself up too much over being unable to try something new with the freelance writing this week.

 

See, with the freelance writing, I was just submitting stuff. I hardly ever pitched any articles. Predictably, the work dried up, which was not good, given that I have recent financial problems. (A job I had my eye on to apply for won’t have any openings until September.) So, I tried to change things up a bit. With all of my market research, I was able to put together a list of markets to pitch every day of the week this week. And submit something. And write something.

 

Thing of it is, though, the stuff I wanted to submit this week was not up to snuff. They needed some serious revision! In fact, an essay I wrote was turned into an article which I needed to do more research for.

 

Another essay needs a lot of work, so that, too, was not submitted.

 

A short story I wrote also required more revision. After two rounds of revision, it still isn’t ready to submit!

 

And while I had ideas for articles and short stories to write this week, there were only so many of them which were written.

 

The reason? I didn’t have enough time in my day to do all that stuff, in addition to all that other stuff I do, along with my work for the press.

 

And I need to be there for my kids, too. And try to keep clean laundry and dishes in the house.

 

Yeah, life is pretty busy and my days are pretty full. So of course I was not able to perform my new plan for the freelance writing this week. I have been posting about my progress every day on BlueSky and Facebook.

 

Things worked out well for the first couple of days. Then things got busy! And my time with the work for the press is very important to me. In fact, I wanted to finish developmental edits on a manuscript today and thankfully, I was able to do that. And edit a short story. And read another submission. Got ‘em all done today.

 

But the new plan for the freelance writing? Not so much. I submitted a short story today, but I did not pitch as many articles or write certain stories for my book. The week started off strong but then I wasn’t able to do all the rest of the other things.

 

I won’t give up on those tasks I had planned for the week, though. I have kept all of those Post-It Notes with markets to submit to, articles to pitch, and stories to write. I’ll get them all done, too! At some point. Maybe after I get the newsletter out tomorrow – and even THAT might be going out late!

Not Every Writer Has the Same Daily Writing Goals

Writers on the Internet like to talk about how many words they wrote today. Some writers even measure their success by their daily output. Other writers have a rule to write X amount of words every day. I am not like these writers.

 

For me, I will consider my writing day successful only if I wrote the things that I wanted to write that day. It’s usually something original, like a blog post or short story, in addition to the normal work I do on my books. And even with my books, I don’t rely on writing X amount of words in them every day, because it depends on the book I am working on. The book might call for revision, editing, research, or writing. Even there, when I’m writing a current WIP (and I have several), it’s usually a chapter or two or a handful of poems.

 

The point is that while all the writers out there are talking about how many words they wrote that day, now especially since a lot of writers are doing NaNoWriMo, I’m taking satisfaction in the writing work that I got done for the day.

 

This only goes to show that not every writer has the same daily writing goals. For some of us, just being able to write at all is enough. For others, being able to write that first draft when they are under a deadline can be a sufficient daily writing goal. Still other writers are happy to go about the rest of the day after writing one chapter in their WIP or getting X amount of words written.

 

Daily writing goals can vary, so don’t feel bad if your daily writing goal is not the same as everyone else’s. That is perfectly fine. Focus on what you need to do for your writing. Go at your own pace and stick to what feels right for you.

 

Of course, you can try adopting other writer’s daily goals. I have done this, and it was interesting to see just what I could get done when I pushed myself to stick to this goal. One goal I tried to achieve was to write 15,000 words in one day. I did manage to do this, for an ebook I was writing, but I certainly could not do it on the regular because it took me all day to get that done. And my life is just too busy to allow for that kind of thing. I’m not just writing books; I’m also working as a freelance writer, reviewing books, putting together a monthly newsletter that I work on all month long, working on self-publishing projects, and working on ghostwriting projects. I also try to squeeze in some book promo here and there! Plus, I’m busy with my kids (thank goodness one of them is finally able to get a driver’s license!). My life is just too busy to spend all day on one goal.

 

And this is another reason why we writers should not all try to have the same daily writing goal that other writers out there have. Everybody is living a different life with different schedules. A lot of us are VERY busy! We can only get so much writing done. And in my opinion, any writing we are able to get done each day is what I call a successful writing day.

 

And now for some paying markets!

 

These paying markets for writers were removed from an article I recently submitted because they use Submittable to accept submissions. The site I submitted the article to does not accept markets which use Submittable.

 

3rd Wednesday

https://thirdwednesdaymagazine.org/   

This literary magazine was created by a group of poets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They publish work from writers everywhere. They accept poetry, short fiction and artwork. Their guidelines

https://thirdwednesdaymagazine.org/submissions/ state that payment is $3 and a copy of the issue the creator’s work appears in.

 

Zone3

https://zone3press.com/

"We are a literary journal accepting poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We pay $10 per page for prose and $15 per poem, with an individual maximum of $100." They charge a $3 fee. You can read their guidelines here: https://zone3press.submittable.com/submit  

 

Third Estate Art

https://www.thirdestateart.org/

Their About Us page shares detailed information about who they are and what they support. Their magazine Decapitate (formerly Quaranzine) publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, comics, photography and “anything else that we can reasonably put into this format.” They also accept hybrid submissions. According to their submission guidelines https://www.thirdestateart.org/decap-submissions:“Please send us art and writing with an underlying social justice theme, or any kind of activist work that you’d like an eclectic audience for.” Pays $25.

 

Third Street Review

https://third-street-review.org/

From their submission guidelines https://third-street-review.org/submissions/: “Located on the Pacific Ocean in the artists’ colony of Laguna Beach, California, Third Street Review lives on the edge, both literally and figuratively. California has always been synonymous with exploration and innovation and, in creative expression, with boundary expansion and the dynamic re-invention of artistic forms. Third Street Review is no different. Share your best writing and visual art. We welcome traditional formats as well as pieces that push boundaries, embrace experimentation, and reflect artistic excellence.” Accepts fiction, nonfiction/creative nonfiction, poetry, art and photography. All submissions blind. All submissions must be previously unpublished. Pays $25 via PayPal upon acceptance.

The Power of 3: Three Nonpaying Markets for Writers

 

I work as a freelance writer, which is something I am quick to admit to anytime someone asks me, “What do you do?” What I’m not so quick to admit to is that I submit to nonpaying markets in addition to the ones that do pay.

 

I know, I know. Writers should be paid for all of their hard work. You can’t pay bills with exposure. Etc., etc. I know all of the arguments put forth on why writers should be paid for their work.

 

And while I DO rely on any income that I earn from freelance writing to help pay bills, pay for my medications and fund my self-publishing ventures, I don’t ACTIVELY rely on that income. I don’t need that kind of stress! Seriously. I basically just hope for the best. It’s NICE to get an acceptance where I will be paid for my work, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t.

 

One of the reasons why I have adopted this mindset with freelance writing is because I am more focused on getting my name out there than I am in being paid to be published. Also, as a publisher of a newsletter myself, I know how hard it is to have the money to pay writers for their contributions to my newsletter. And if I pay too little, I get slammed by other newsletter publishers who are paying double digits.

 

If I did pay writers that amount for their contributions, I would not be able to publish my newsletter. So, unfortunately, I am unable to pay writers.

 

So, yeah, I get it. I know it’s hard.

 

Also, I didn’t feel comfortable turning my nose up at publishing opportunities that do not pay writers. I have had some very pleasant experiences in being published in nonpaying markets, and have worked with amazing people.

 

All of this is to say I bring you three nonpaying markets who all have a “3” in their name. To those of you who would find this useful and submit to those markets, I wish you the best of luck!

 

3:AMMagazine

This market is currently closed to fiction submissions. From their Facebook page: "3:AM Magazine is an online journal of radical literature and philosophy. Featuring literary criticism." Currently accepting poetry, criticism and nonfiction. Their submission guidelines can be found here. Note that they request you contact the correct editor for your submission, which can be found on their Contacts page.

 

3Elements Review

According to their submissions guidelines: “We appreciate good writing in any genre. We especially like edgy writing that offers insight into darkness. We prefer character-driven stories as opposed to plot-driven ones. We relish a piece with a great deal of heart and more than a little bit of Truth (note the capital “T”). We want to read a story that makes us feel edified or philosophical or amused or creeped out or angry or melancholy or inspired or, best yet, all of these things together.”

They provide three elements to include in your story to submit. Deadlines to submit stories are on a rolling basis. Length for fiction and nonfiction submissions is 3500 words max, and poetry must be limited to two typed pages. All submissions must be previously unpublished. They also accept art and photography which capture the three elements provided in some way.

 

3centsMagazine

From their submission guidelines page: 

“Remember that at 3cents Magazine we are looking for works that can enter into a conversation with two other pieces–works that have something to say.” Current theme is “companionship” and the submission deadline is December 3. They accept poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Submissions must be previously unpublished and each submission must go into one category: poetry, nonfiction and creative nonfiction/essay/memoir.  

Never Rely on One Source of Income as a Freelance Writer

Here is a personal rule of mine that I had to learn the hard way:

If you are a freelance writer, don’t ever rely on one source of income.

 

That is a mistake I realized I was making after I got back into freelance writing. Of course, that one sources of income ended, and it taught me the importance of having multiple sources of income. Thankfully, it wasn’t too late for me to pull myself up by my bootstraps and find other ways of earning that income as a freelance writer, but it is definitely one lesson I will never forget.

 

If you are a freelance writer, this can be an easy thing to avoid. Unless you are working with a client who demands exclusivity or first review of all of your work (which is another bad idea!), then you have the option of pitching multiple clients for work – magazines, E-zines and websites.

 

I was reminded of this rule recently, when my original source of freelance writing income experienced problems with its website.

 

When I made the decision to go back to working as a freelance writer, I had one problem: I couldn’t remember how to write a query letter! I read several resources about how to write a query letter, but none of them helped jog my memory.

 

Thankfully, a friend of mine was working for a content creation platform, and suggested I join. I applied and was accepted. In that position, I had to write pitches for articles. A tutorial was provided and I followed it to the letter.

 

After a while of writing those pitches, I finally remembered how to write query letters again. Yay! It was I the task of writing those pitches that helped it all come back to me.

 

And while I had a lot of work going on there, I knew it would not last forever. (It didn’t.) So, I got busy doing regular freelance writing again – that is, querying markets and pitching ideas for articles. It helped that I signed up with a newsletter that listed markets looking for writers, as well as checking for calls for pitches on Twitter.

 

And here I am, many months later, still going at it. Even after the work at the content marketing platform dried out, I wasn’t worried, because I had multiple markets to pitch to as well as a small pool of clients to run ideas by.

 

That site I got started at recently experienced a crash, with members unable to log in. I felt bad for all the writers who were a part of that site currently working on projects for their clients, and only hoped that at least they had other sources of income so they can get their bills paid.

 

But that debacle reminded me of me, when I was first starting out there. That was my one and only source of income as a writer. I’m so glad I reminded myself of the importance of having other sources of income before the work ran out, and this site outage only goes to show just how important it is to avoid relying on just that one source.

 

When you are a freelance writer relying on your income to help you buy food, medication, pay bills, etc., then you really can’t have just one client or one source of income. Part of freelancing is the “free” part: You are free to work with other clients and pitch work to other markets. As you should do. If you rely on only one client or one market for your income, and especially with how iffy technology can be, then you are only setting yourself up for trouble if that client or market is unreachable or the website crashes for days. It’s just bad form, so try to have as many clients and different venues of income at the ready as possible. Have telephone numbers and email addresses handy in case you can’t reach clients through a website.

 

Technology is great and all, and there are many websites out there which can help writers to earn a decent monthly income. Just make sure you have a backup plan for keeping that income coming in if that technology isn’t working correctly or websites are down.