Greetings! I’m Jennifer Applin, one of the Writing Career Consult Winners. I recently had my phone consultation with Christina and I thought I’d tell you a little about it. First, I should point out that I’m fairly new to freelance writing. I researched (okay, actually procrastinated) for about a year and then got serious about it in the summer, a few months after my fourth child was born. At that point my oldest was only five years old, so with four little kids running around I knew starting a freelance writing career was not going to be easy. I read about Christina’s class, Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff, and it sounded perfect!
The class was just what I needed and the articles I wrote for the assignments became my first few clips. Just as the class finished up I won the Renegade Writer Career Makeover Contest (seriously I’m usually one of those people who never wins anything). So adding this experience to the essential basics I learned in Christina’s class has helped me go from saying I want to be a writer to I am a writer.
Now fast-forward a few months to finding out that I won the phone consultation with Christina. I was definitely thrilled, but as I prepared a few questions for our conversation a thought crossed my mind. What in the world would we talk about for an hour? After all, I had taken her class and read her book (which I LOVE). Isn’t there a limit to the amount of advice one person can give? In a word-NO!-at least when you’re talking about Christina Katz J
During the phone consult Christina was great to talk to and she offered excellent advice. At this point in my career I’ve kind of been doing the “which way do I go” dance. I have a few published credits to my name and my career is starting to move along, but I reached the point of total confusion when it comes to the next direction. Most of my success so far has come from writing for regional parenting publications. I’ve enjoyed writing for these smaller publications and the work has been fairly easy, but I was wondering if it’s time to focus my attention on the national markets. My concern was that this would take a while and I wouldn’t receive any sort of payment for quite some time. Christina helped me realize that I have found something that works really well for me right now and there is nothing wrong with continuing to write for the RPPs. Through research I have a list of about 250 e-mail addresses for these smaller publications. Since I’m selling one-time rights it’s pretty easy to sell one article many times over, which makes each article fairly profitable. Since I’d still like to break into the national publications Christina suggested that I spend the majority of my time writing for the RPPs (since this is helping to pay the bills), but still dedicate a certain number of hours each week to submitting queries. I loved her suggestion that my time dedicated to querying should just focus on one publication. If I haven’t received a favorable response after submitting about four queries then that may be the time to move on to the next dream magazine on my list. She pointed out that successfully pitching a national magazine requires a lot of time analyzing it. Since I’m only allowing a few hours a week I’ll be more successful by focusing on just one publication at a time.
The rest of the consultation consisted of Christina and I discussing a variety of article topics I was thinking about. She offered excellent suggestions for formatting these articles and even suggested ways I could start establishing a platform (specific to me). I felt so motivated when the conversation ended! I looked at the clock and was shocked that we had talked for well over an hour because I am NOT a phone person.
It has been a little over two weeks since the consult. This time has been very productive and I feel great about my writing plans. If I could offer any advice to other writer mamas out there I’d say follow your instincts and go with what works for you. It can be very confusing when you hear about one person who became successful doing things one way and another by doing the total opposite. Writing careers are as individual as the writers themselves and so is the path to success. So take a look at where you are and where you want to be, and map out your own path to success. Keep Writer Mama handy as a reminder that you aren’t alone in this journey and YES you too can be a writer!
Jennifer Applin
www.jenniferapplin.com
Your article is a great little lesson in itself. I’m a regional writer who lacks the courage to try the big magazines but your article jazzed me up. Thanks so much for sharing, and many blessings on your writing career.