All those using Writer's Market!!

Don't get me wrong, I adore my Writer's Market. I love it's thick solidity and it's deep lavender cover and the assurance it promises, the years of expertise, the way they immediately flag those who aren't worth bothering.

But it is, after all, an expensive book. And for someone trying to sort through short story markets to determine which are best for my work, it's tedious. I have my huge tome propped up on my knees while I steadfastly enter listing after listing into an Excel file, always certain that I've missed something. I know I have. Writer's Market is limited by the weight the human arm can bear, and there are always publications missing.

I just discovered Duotrope. It's an online listing of short story, poetry, and long fiction markets, organized by a search engine, so that I can list my genre (literary), desired payment (semi-professional and up), and type of media (print) and it lists all the publications it can find, with little codes next to them to indicate what genres they accept, the length of submissions, payscale, and media type. If you select the publication you're interested in (say, Paris Review - hey, my ambitions are absurd) it will clarify further how to submit to that particular publication (by mail, with no simultaneous submissions and no reprints) along with statistics from the users of the site as to the percentage of rejections and acceptances. The best button, to my mind, is the one that allows you to eliminate publications that are not currently accepting submissions from your search. If a publication doesn't accept submissions between May and September, and you do a search in June, that publication will not appear in your search, and you won't waste time trying to determine if they are a fit market for the story you just finished.

It's a wonderful site, and it's absolutely free, and it organizes this information in just the way I would want it organized, if I had any idea how to write up a website, which I do not. I am glad Duotrope does this for me. This means I can put off learning HTML for another decade. Well done, Duotrope. Well done indeed.

Getting work, Part 1: The clips

I confess. This blog has arisen out of some extraordinary rejoicing on my part. I've landed a copywriting job at the Brooklyn Public Library, after only five weeks in New York City, the first three of which were largely devoted to recovering from a five-day road trip across the United States, and adjusting to the new city. It's the first job I've ever applied for, in my life, and I landed it.

First and foremost: you have more experience than you think you do. Writers always do. In my case, it was copyediting I used to do for my mother, and a handful of projects I did as a teenager for a non-profit. Beyond actual material you may or may not have produced in your career: you can make things up. This is not against the rules, particularly not in copywriting, where creativity counts for everything. For magazine writing, it is usually necessary to have had your work published, and of course it is completely unethical to indicate you have published work for a magazine when you have not. For copywriting, however, as long as the words and ideas are your own, it simply does not matter if this work has ever been professionally produced. If you can write good, compelling copy for a brochure, you need not have graphics designed for it, you do not need to produce anything other than the words. If your portfolio is completely empty, start writing. Find companies you know something about - people your parents have worked for or who have worked for your parents. Got friends with small business ideas? Offer to produce some of their material for them.

When you have this material gathered together, choose some pieces that are significant to the job for which you are applying. For the Brooklyn Public Library, I chose a press release I did for a online educational community and the text of a brochure I did for a non-profit dedicated to helping children in abusive or impoverished homes in Oakland. The first mirrored the BPL's dedication to education, the second demonstrated that I understood non-profit companies. If you don't have materials that match the job you're going for, go ahead and produce something. Even trying your hand at a fictional brochure or website content can give you some insight into how best to write for a particular industry - insight which will serve you well in your cover letter and interview.

Other things I should be doing.

There are so many things I should be doing right now.

I have two short stories I ought to be final-editing before I print them, paste stamps across their fronts, and throw them in the mailbox on their way to Tin House and the Kenyon Review. I should be drafting copy for the two companies I currently work for, the Brooklyn Public Library and A Hard Day's Knight. I could be researching magazines and typing up some pitches for articles, because I have a wonderful idea for a feminist piece I think I'm pitching simultaneously to Bitch and a knife lover's trade magazine.

Instead, I'm writing a blog. And browsing around online, trying to find more work to add to an already-full plate.

Jobs and Taxes

There are things they don't tell you before you set out to become a freelance writer. Things about money, and how while there will be more of it than you anticipated, it will rarely actually find its way to your bank account. You will (in theory) have three thousand dollars, for work tendered, but it will be floating out there in fiscal never-never-land, and you will not be able to touch it. Instead you will call your parents for a loan, and write a check to your landlord you're praying sideways won't bounce, and grumble quietly to yourself about the flippancy of people for whom you work, who have money. They even have your money. But you can't have it.

I have discovered something significant, however. I have never in my life known how to write out my taxes. I realize I am not alone in this, but it seems that it should not be such a great mystery. I'm a single woman, writing. I know where all of my 10-99's are. I keep my receipts. I'm not a subset of some larger corporation. Me, myself, is as complicated as my finances get. I ought to be able to manage this.

I was recommended the Nolo series, who write law books for you and me and everyone you can imagine. They also do something that I highly recommend everyone do when discussing numbers with me: they talk down to you. A lot. And it's wonderful. Hopefully I won't owe the government anything this year. I don't see how I can. I didn't make anything last year.