Speaking of holiday shopping, I have a review of kid’s digital cameras up over at Alpha mom:

I only ask that, no matter how much your kid nags you for that Diego camera, you will not buy it unless you can really afford it, heh, heh.

More freelancing tips from the Diapers to Deadlines archives…

So you’ve read The Renegade Writer–or are just sick of waiting for your SASEs to show back up in the mail–and have decided to give e-mail submissions a shot? Good for you! Make no mistake, e-mail can be a convenient and quick way to pitch ideas and essays, hammer out assignment details or introduce yourself to an editor. But sometimes, the ease and informal feel of e-mail can lead to some less-than-professional behavior. Though you can’t make an editor love your ideas, the least you can do is make sure he won’t be able to find fault with your presentation. So, in keeping with April’s Best Foot Forward theme, we’ve decided to give a few tips for making a good impression on any editor’s inbox:

Be Adequately Formal:

Miss Manners I’m not. You should see some of the e-mail exchanges between Toni and I–sometimes consisting of nothing more than a one-word reply, uncapitalized, with no punctuation. But Toni and I are friends, and our relationship has moved past proper and is now decidedly colloquial.

Contrast that to the pitches I get every so often from PR representatives and expert sources that contain no greeting, no capitalization, and no closing. If those pitches raise the eyebrows of even a Casual Cathy like myself, I can only imagine what a similarly-laid-back query might do to the eyebrows of an editor who values propriety–not to mention punctuation.

You don’t have to copy a business letter’s style–in fact, a return-address block on an e-mail might look a little strange–but at a minimum, any e-mail contacts with someone you’re not on a familiar basis with yet should contain a greeting; proper capitalization, punctuation, and grammar; and a closing. Whenever I can reasonably ascertain an editor’s gender, I use the rather formal "Dear Ms (or Mr.) Smith". I know that some, to be on the completely safe side, prefer to write "Dear John Smith", but to me, that looks stilted and awkward: if I absolutely can’t find out whether Terry, Chris or Pat are male or female, I just go with Dear Firstname (PS: One way to figure out an editor’s gender is by asking writer acquaintances for a tip. For closings, "Best" seems to be a standard in magazine journalism; but "best wishes," "sincerely", or "regards" will do as well. Save XOXO (hugs and kisses), TTFN (ta-ta for now), and CYA (See ya) for your grandmother or best friend.

And while we’re on the topic of cutesy acronyms, please keep in mind that not everyone in the world knows what KWIM, BRB, or ROFLMAOPIMP stand for. Leave them out of work-related correspondence unless you know they’ll go over well. Same goes for smileys–yes, even if your e-mail program lets you do fun variations like the Throwing Up Smiley or Drinking Beer Smiley. Moving on…

Address Success:

Okay, so you really love Scooby Doo. I get it. But an e-mail address like velmalovesshaggy29304@hotmail.com isn’t going to "wow" your editors. It looks unprofessional, and let’s face it–it probably says more about you than they need to know. If you have your own URL, some variation on yourname@yourname.com is great. As for whether free mail hosts are acceptable, I think they’re OK as long as the address looks professional: I’ve had a Yahoo account for years, and have found it more reliable than the various @meaganfrancis.com accounts I’ve had through hosting companies, so I’ve stuck with it. But I’m meaganfrancis@yahoo.com, not ilovemycutiepatootie@yahoo.com. See the difference?

Signing Off:

It’s a great idea to create a signature line containing your contact info (phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, and website URL if you have one–more on that later this month) so that if an editor wants to give you a quick call to discuss an idea or wants to pop a contract in the mail, he or she won’t have to go digging around to find your contact info. The easier you can make an editor’s job, the better your relationship will be.

Don’t Abuse It.

Keep in mind that in many offices, opening unsolicited attachments is strictly verboten. Don’t send ‘em unless you have a working relationship with the editor, and even then, you may want to ask him or her first if attachments are OK. And if you get a request from an editor to send future pitches via snail mail, don’t take it personally–a lot of editors still prefer to work with hard copies. You can decide for yourself whether you want to continue to pursue the editor, but whatever you do, don’t continue to flood his or her inbox with unwelcome e-mailed pitches after being specifically asked not to. There’s a line between being assertive and ambitious–and just plain annoying.

One last thing–don’t expect anyone to drop everything they’re doing to reply to your message. Yes, the lightning-fast speed at which you can carry out conversations via e-mail might make you impatient with those editors who take their time responding. But remember–just because somebody theoretically could answer an e-mail within thirty seconds doesn’t mean they’re obligated to. Wait a while–I usually give it anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on my relationship with the editor–before following up on an unanswered e-mail, and don’t act put out if your e-mail gets missed. Spam folders, itchy delete fingers and slammed inboxes can make the job of keeping up with e-mail difficult, and you’ll make a much better impression with a light, casual check-in than an obnoxious "Didja get my e-mail? Huh? Huh? Didja?"

Using e-mail has made my writing career 100 times easier–and it can do the same for you. Just use common sense and follow the guidelines above and you’ll make a great electronic impression.

Do you have any funny–or embarrassing–stories of e-mail gaffes? Share ‘em here!

Annie said “I’d love to hear more about marketing your work”, so I dragged up another oldie but goodie from the “Diapers to Deadlines” archives.

When non-writers find out that I write for consumer magazines, I often get a response that sounds something like this: "How do you decide which magazines to send which ideas to? They all look the same to me."

Ah, but they really aren’t.

Yes, even I often joke with my sister that all a successful writer has to do is come up with new ways to "walk off the weight". But going beyond a casual look, a reader who’s paying attention can see that style and tone ranges from magazine to magazine or website to website, even if the subject matter is similar and the designs and layouts look almost exactly the same. Are the articles written to "you" or do they take a more formal third-person approach? Or a combination? Are they friendly and casual in tone or authoritative and heavy on "expert" advice? How long are the articles? How many sidebars does each one have? How photo-driven are the stories? Are there regular departments that appear consistently? Are they written by freelancers, staffers, or regular contributors? Does the magazine or website run first-person essays? Two magazines can sit side-by-side on a newsstand, have similar cover lines, similar-looking cover art, and the answers to the above questions could be very different.

That’s why market research is important. Researching a market–whether it’s a magazine, newspaper, web publication, literary journal, or publishing house–to find out what sort of writing they publish and when, is smart business. Not only will you hit the mark more often when you really understand the publication you’re submitting your work or pitching ideas to, but on those times that you don’t make a sale, you’ll at least make a positive impression upon an editor–that even if this idea doesn’t work out, (because: it’s in the works, it’s already been done, they aren’t running articles by writers whose first name begins with "A" that month…) you’ve done your homework, and you understand the publication. Impressing the editor makes it more likely that you’ll get one of those "this doesn’t work for me, but I’d love to hear more from you" responses.

If you’ve read a beginner’s book on freelancing, no doubt you’ve been advised to send away for writer’s guidelines. I have noticed that many guidelines say something along the lines of "reading the magazine is the best way to find out what sorts of things we publish". It’s true. Writer’s guidelines are helpful, but they usually won’t tell you everything you need to know–which editor is in charge of this section and that one? How many words does the back-page essay run? Is there a back-page essay–or any essays at all? How cutting-edge, timely, or "evergreen" (meaning, one of those topics that never really stops being relevant) are the articles?

Similarly, book publishers all have a different feel when it comes to the titles they publish. Some publishers have lots of celebrity titles. Some publish really art-driven books that are packaged in a certain way. Some publish narrative nonfiction, or only serious fiction, or only genre fiction. You’ll get the best feel for which houses are appropriate for your project if you see what else they’re publishing first.

For those working on book projects, getting an up-close-and-personal feel for what different publishers are putting out might mean many trips to the library or bookstore, seeing which other books are out there and who’s publishing them. Magazine and newspaper writers can also utilize the library: many will allow you to check out back issues of magazines and newspapers. Sites like www.mags4cheap.com offer dirt-cheap subscriptions. Or, ask freelancer friends to participate in a magazine or newspaper swap–just tear out the departments you’re interested in and the masthead to avoid paying shipping on page after page of advertising!

So how much reading should you plan to do? All writers have different approaches when it comes to market research. For example, traditionalists may say that magazine freelancers should study a minimum of six months to a year’s worth of back issues before they pitch–the idea being that they’re less likely to repeat an idea that’s been covered recently that way. But in my experience, since magazines assign so far in advance (up to a year; sometimes more), and you can have no way of knowing what’s in the works now, reading a year–or even three year’s–worth of issues is really no insurance against coming up with the same idea somebody else is already working on. Besides, my memory isn’t good enough to retain an entire year’s worth of articles!

I find that my energy is better spent really focusing in on two or three recent issues, looking carefully at these things:

*Tone. Is the language fun, funky, or formal? Are the articles unfailingly upbeat, do they always contain solutions, do they ever end on a negative note? Do the writers use "you" or "I" in the articles? How expert-heavy is the advice given?

*Who’s writing the articles. Check the masthead to find out if editors and other staffers, contributing editors, or freelancers are writing the articles in each section. If a section seems to always be written by an in-house person, it might mean it’s not open to freelancers.

*Article Length. A magazine that doesn’t ever run articles over 1500 words long isn’t going to be interested in my proposal to cover the latest health craze in 4000 words, even if it’s a REALLY good idea. But if I can figure out a way to approach the topic in 1500 words, I might be able to re-slant the idea for another publication later.

*Departments. Are there regular departments, and are they written by freelancers? Do they follow a specific pattern or formula each issue?

*Sidebars and other visual elements. If a publication tends to have very visually-driven articles or routinely uses charts, graphs, sidebars and other breakouts, suggesting them in the pitch might help the editor visualize the way my idea would look on the page.

Once you’ve done the research, what you choose to do with the information is up to you. Some writers pick and choose which markets will fit their ideas, exactly the way they want to write them. Some writers will package an idea differently in order to appeal to different markets. It’s up to you–whichever approach best fits in with your goals can work, as long as you go in armed with enough information to choose.

We are so excited to have you join us in the launch of From Diapers to Deadlines, a web resource for parents who write professionally–or aim to. It’s our goal to provide you with the support, encouragement, and advice you need to balance two big jobs–professional writing and parenting.

From Diapers to Deadlines is for all parents who are also working writers, whether your oldest baby is still in diapers or your youngest child is a senior in high school; whether you came to writing after having children or are a veteran writer trying to figure out how to balance a baby in the mix; and whether you write books, freelance for magazines and newspapers, or write press releases for corporations. In short, if you’re a working writer–or an aspiring working writer–and a parent, this is the place for you.

Each month we’ll feature a mix of new content and evergreen resources–all FREE–to help you shape your career and balance your life, like inspiring interviews with writing parents and other experts, information-rich podcasts you can listen to at your convenience (say, while driving carpool), weekly challenges to give you a kick in the pants, and a message board where you can meet up with other writing parents to talk about challenges and acheivements, to ask for advice, and to discuss the finer points in the art of balancing a family with a writing career. If you’re a veteran writer, we hope you’ll stop in the message boards to discuss career ups and downs with other established professionals. If you’re just getting started, don’t be shy–poke around, read the content, and introduce yourself! We look forward to watching your career grow.

January’s theme is New Year, New Plan. We’ll be talking about creating a business plan for your writing career, giving your income a boost, and how writers can feed both their families and their souls through their work. Read our interview with accomplished writer and mother Jennifer Margulis and, later this month, Kelly James-Enger; participate in our weekly challenges, check in for regular updates to our blog, look for a podcast around the middle of the month, and visit the message boards, where we’ll be discussing all these topics and much more. And during the month of January, anyone who registers a username and posts on the message boards will be automatically entered in a drawing for a FREE copy of Kelly James-Enger’s book, Six-Figure Freelancing!

Feel free to visit the About Us page to find out more about Toni and Meagan and how this site came to be. As we add more content, the blog posts will be separated into the categories on the left, and we will archive old content so you can find it in the future. If you’d like to be notified when we update the site, please click the "subscribe" link, or add us to your RSS feeds.

Again, welcome. We’re so glad to have you here.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Share your progress, add your insights, or ask questions on our message boards. Click here to comment!