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New Market for Writers of Children’s Books April 19, 2013

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Last August I blogged about writing markets for child authors. After I’d compiled a list on my blog, the editor of the e-zine Knowonder! contacted me to let me know it also publishes children’s writing (as well as children’s stories written by adults). I was unfamiliar with the e-zine but saw it paid, so I submitted a few stories online. Knowonder! recently purchased a Christmas story from me.

The editor has since let me know that Knowonder! is now accepting chapter books for ages 7 to 9. If you’re interested, you can find guidelines and submit at knowonder.submittable.com/submit

From what I’ve submitted to this publisher, I gather the editors are seeking stories more like traditional fairy tales, with an element of magic or fantasy. They ask for “imaginative, exciting, action-filled” stories. They don’t appear to be seeking run-of-the-mill contemporary stories with everyday situations set in ordinary settings.

Writing Slowly March 4, 2013

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While working with beginning writers over the past year, I’ve seen several make the same mistake. They rush to be published. Their efforts to hurry the process may actually lengthen the time it takes them to reach paid publication. If you’re a beginning writer, consider going slowly now to go fast later.

Read good books in the genre you’re interested in writing in. Books written in the past five years are better indicators of what editors are willing to purchase than books considered to be classics.

Bone up on grammar. Many editors refuse to spend time cleaning up messes of lazy writers.

Read books about the publishing process itself and how to get published. Again, the latest books will be the most helpful in this.

Attend writing conferences if you can. These can be expensive so you may want to hold off until you have a writing project near completion, but if you can afford to go before then, you can receive a lot of good instruction at conferences. Conferences can jumpstart a writing career. The experience is sort of like learning a foreign language through full immersion in another culture rather than through a textbook.

Consider taking a class. Even if you live in a remote area, you can find plenty of online classes.

Join a critique group. If you’re fortunate enough to have critique partners who have been paid for their writing and been successfully published, pay special attention to their comments. They’ve been where you’re at and they’ve found success.

Better Google Searches for Writers February 2, 2013

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Hands down, the Internet beats the old days when writers had to go to the library to research a topic. Now anyone can retrieve information with a few computer clicks. I frequently use Google in my searches and have discovered the following ways to improve results:

  • Use the asterisk (*) as a wild card with the words you’re searching. For example, if you wanted to search for me on the Web but couldn’t remember my last name but knew I was a children’s author, you could type Ronica * children’s author and related sites would pop up, providing my last name.
  • Use the minus sign before words you want to exclude from the search. Using a similar example, if you searched solely on my first name, Ronica, and a bunch of “Ronica Smith” sites showed up, you could eliminate Ronica Smith from your search by typing Ronica -Smith.
  • Put quotation marks around a word or two (such as “Ronica Stromberg”) to pull up sites only with the word (or words) as quoted.
  • To find the word you’re searching for on a Web site that came up, hit Control-F (Command-F on a Mac) and enter the word you’re searching for again. This will highlight the word you’re searching for. I’ve found this useful when a Web site has page after page of text but no clear indication where the word or phrase I’m searching for may be.
  • To restrict search results to a specific URL, add site: in front of the URL. For example, dognapper site:nytimes.com would pull articles printed about dognappers at The New York Times domain.
  • To find sites similar to one you’re using, type related: before the URL of the site (as in related:nytimes.com).
  • Use two periods between numeric ranges to find information about a range. For example, if you wanted to find information about gasoline prices between 1970 and 1980, you could type gasoline prices 1970 . . 1980. Writers of historical novels may find this particularly useful for research.
  • To use Google as a dictionary and look up the definition of a word, type define: immediately followed by the word.
  • To find the current weather in a town (in case you are about to set off on a book talk or other trip), type weather in followed by the town’s name.
  • To convert currency or measurements, use search formats such as 50 pesos in US dollars or 100 kilometers in miles.
  • To find the title of a song that lyrics come from, type some of the more distinct lyrics followed by :lyric. For example, when I type want to be a paperback writer:lyric, several sites appear, letting me know this line of lyrics comes from the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” song.
  • To get alerted about breaking news on a topic, go to http://www.google.com/alerts and enter the topic and your e-mail address. Google will then e-mail you the next time news on the topic appears on the Internet. I know a lot of authors type their name or key words from their works into this site to track online publicity and, also, to check whether their writing is being plagiarized.

Instead of doing a general search of the whole Internet, I may have only a specific area I want to search. The following are my favorites.

blogs     http://www.google.com/blogsearch

books     http://books.google.com/

finance     http://www.google.com/finance  This search of the latest financial news may be of particular interest to business and financial writers.

images     http://images.google.com  This site can be misleading. When I searched on “F. Scott Fitzgerald,” the name of one of my favorite authors, photos of him–and a bunch of other people–cropped up. Had I not already known what F. Scott Fitzgerald looked like, the site wouldn’t have helped much.

news     http://news.google.com/

patents     http://www.google.com/?tbm=pts

scholarly works   http://scholar.google.com/

videos     http://www.google.com/videohp

Search Engines January 9, 2013

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As a nonfiction writer, I find search engines indispensable. Below I’ve listed my favorites. Next month I’ll share tips on how to improve Google searches!

Blekko.com – a spam- and virus-free search engine that allows users to search news, jobs, blogs, and more

Clusty.com – a meta search engine that clusters results, includes customization tabs, and can search the blogosphere

Dogpile.com – a combined search of well-known search engines

Draze.com – a comparison search engine with free e-mail, web hosting, and more

Goodsearch.com – a search engine that donates a penny to a school or nonprofit with each search

Ixquick.com –  a search engine that can search in several languages and is popular in Europe

Mamma.com – a metasearch tool for webs, news, image, video, and Twitter

MsFreckles.com – this Swedish engine can search images, blogs, definitions, news, 35 languages, stocks, products, movie reviews, and more

MSN.com and Yahoo.com – two popular searches I find handy when I’m already on their opening page

WebCrawler – a source to search images, video, news, and local information using Google, Yahoo! and other popular search engines

New Year, New Hope December 11, 2012

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DSC06879-View of Freedom Tower from Governors Island

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

We spent our vacation this past summer in New York City. I’d never been to the city before and found it smaller than I expected. We walked all over the place, and I was thrilled to see the headquarters of so many publishers I’d only seen the addresses of in correspondence. Even the big names seemed far less intimidating up close.

As a writer living in the Midwest, I know living in New York would have advantages. I’d have more opportunities to network with industry professionals, and I could maybe learn more about the industry by working in it.

But it is possible to break into paid publication from remote areas. I’ve done it. Some of my writing friends have, even pulling down national awards with their first published books. It is still possible to secure an agent without prior publication or be discovered in the slush pile. Easy, no. Possible, yes.

Instead of focusing on factors beyond my control, I’ve found it helpful to focus on the factor I have most control of: craft. I am always looking for ways to learn, grow, and improve my writing. Good writing stands a chance of catching notice.

A new year is coming. New year, new hope.

Working While Writing November 1, 2012

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I’ve been working outside the home the past two-and-a-half years, and while that’s cut my writing time and productivity, it’s also benefited me. I’m networking more, selling more books face-to-face, finding more subjects for profile stories, earning more, and better managing the time I have to write. Probably the biggest benefit of working outside the home, though, is upgrading my technological skills.

While I was at home, I mainly used Word, the standard for the publishing industry. Since I’ve been working, I’ve learned Excel, Access, PowerPoint, and Publisher. I now track my sales and expenses in Excel, have created a PowerPoint presentation of one of my school talks, and can create my own author brochures in Publisher. I’ve also become more savvy in Word.

As an example, I used to type letters to publishers and then retype the address on the envelope. A coworker showed me how to save time by placing the cursor at the beginning of the first line of the address in the letter, choosing “Mailings,” and choosing “Envelopes” or “Labels.” The program automatically transfers the whole address to where it can be printed on an envelope or label. Timesaving tips like this add up.

If I ever do return to working from home, I think my writing career will be stronger from the time I spent in the corporate world.

Evening of Encouragement October 1, 2012

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At the Evening of Encouragement for local homeschoolers, the president of the local homeschool association, Ronda Swanson, interviewed me Oprah-style on stage. I enjoyed this talk show format and think the audience did too. The 100-or-so parents who attended asked thoughtful, penetrating questions not typically addressed in a writing presentation. I ended up speaking about movie rights and film options, online media, and the effects of our current culture on children’s literature. (I’m prepared for Oprah whenever she decides to book me!)

Ronda Swanson and Ronica Stromberg at “Evening of Encouragement”

Several parent educators caught me after the public talk to further discuss books, writing, and other issues brought up during the talk. They were a well-informed group, which didn’t surprise me since I’ve spoken with parent educators nationwide while researching the homeschool movement for a magazine article I’ve been working on. I’ve found homeschoolers to be hard-working, dedicated to providing their children with the best education they can. Spending this Evening of Encouragement with them encouraged me to work harder in my writing for children.

Writing Markets for Kids August 27, 2012

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When the president of the local homeschool association invited me to speak at their “Evening of Encouragement,” she told me several of their children and teens are interested in writing for publication. She asked if I knew where these kids could submit their work. (Some children’s magazines only accept submissions from adults, and few pay children even if they accept submissions from them.) I researched the market and pulled together the below list of places for kids’ writing. If you know of others, feel free to post a comment with the information.

Kids, I strongly encourage you to look at the Web site of the publishers and at the magazines before submitting anything.  Happy writing!

Ronica’s List of Places Where Kids Can Submit Their Writing

Aletheia is an e-zine targeted toward Christian teens. It considers poetry and artwork from teens and pays with a free electronic copy of the magazine. Submission guidelines can be found at http://www.aletheiamag.com/submissions.html

The Apprentice Writer is a literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essay, and photography of high school students. Submit work to Gary Fincke, Writers Institute Director, Susquehanna University, 610 University Ave., Selinsgrove, PA 17870-1164.  http://www.susqu.edu/academics/10602.asp

Ask, Cricket, Muse, and Spider magazines are part of the Carus Publishing Company. They run writing contests with details in their current issues. Learn more about the magazines at http://www.cricketmag.com

Child Life (ages 9-11), Children’s Digest (ages 10-12), Children’s Playmate (ages 6-8), Humpty Dumpty (ages 4-6), Jack And Jill (ages 7-10), Turtle Magazine (preschool), and U.S. Kids (ages 6-10), are part of The Children’s Better Health Institute, P.O. Box 567, Indianapolis, IN 46206. They sometimes request the poems, jokes, and drawings of kids.  http://www.cbhi.org

ChixLIT publishes stories by girls ages 7 to 17.  ChixLIT, P.O. Box 12051, Orange, CA  92859.  http://www.chixlit.com

Cicada publishes writing and artwork from kids 14 and older.   http://www.cricketmag.com/22-Submission-Guidelines-for-CICADA-magazine-for-teens-ages-14+

Creative Kids publishes the games, stories, poetry, and artwork of kids ages 8 to 16.  Submissions Editor, Creative Kids, P.O. Box 8813, Waco, TX  76714-8813.  http://www.prufrock.com/Assets/ClientPages/kids_magazine.aspx

Encounter, a Christian magazine for junior high and high school kids, accepts poetry, artwork, and testimonies from teens. The magazine accepts submissions by e-mail only at encounter@standardpub.com.   http://www.standardpub.com/view/encounter-submission-guidelines.aspx

Highlights accepts drawings, poems, jokes, riddles, tongue twisters, stories, science questions, book reviews, Creatures Nobody Has Ever Seen!, recipes, craft ideas, letters to Dear Highlights, and dinosaur drawings, jokes, and questions from kids. Highlights for Children, 803 Church Street, Honesdale, PA 18431.  http://www.highlightskids.com/send-us-your-creative-work

Insight is a Seventh-Day Adventist publication for 13- to 19-year-olds. It publishes true stories, profiles, and general articles.  Insight Magazine, 55 West Oak Ridge Drive, Hagerstown, MD 21740. http://www.insightmagazine.org/guidelines/

Knowonder! publishes a story a day for 3- to 10-year-olds at http://www.knowonder.com. Kids can submit their own stories and artwork.

Merlyn’s Pen publishes fiction, essays, and poems by U.S. teens.  Merlyn’s Pen, Inc., 11 South Angell St., Suite 301, Providence, RI 02906.  http://www.merlynspen.org/write/submit.php

New Moon magazine for girls 8 and up publishes the writing and artwork of girls. http://www.newmoon.com/content/?id=1006&type=1

Potato Hill Poetry posts a contests page on its Web site and includes information about other publishers who accept poetry and writing from kids.   http://www.potatohill.com/contest.html

Skipping Stones is a multicultural magazine that publishes essays, stories, letters to the editor, riddles, proverbs, poems, drawings, paintings, and photos of kids.  Submissions may be in any language but should include an English translation.  Skipping Stones Magazine, P.O. Box 3939, Eugene, OR 97403. http://skippingstones.org/submissions.htm

Stone Soup publishes stories, poems, book reviews, and art by kids, up to age 13.  Pays $40 for stories, poems, and book reviews and $25 for illustrations.  Stone Soup, ATTN:  Submissions Department, P.O. Box 83, Santa Cruz, CA 95063.  http://www.stonesoup.com/stone-soup-contributor-guideline/

Teen Ink publishes writing by teens, ages 13 to 19, in its magazine, Web site, and books.    http://www.teenink.com/submit

UpWords Poetry is a resource for young poets and writers, including links for other publishers that accept poetry.  http://www.upwordspoetry.com/Links.htm

Evening with Homeschoolers August 20, 2012

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I’ve been invited to speak at our local homeschool association’s upcoming “Evening of Encouragement.” I’m looking forward to meeting parents and speaking with them about the value of homeschooling. I’m not a home educator, but I have worked with the U.S. Department of Education and state education agencies and currently write for Royal Fireworks Press, the world’s largest publisher of books for gifted and talented children and a growing influence in the homeschool market. (The press is a bit unusual because it publishes novels that tie into school curricula and appeal to gifted children who want to go further on a particular topic or seek more challenging texts.)

I’m also working on an article about the benefits of homeschooling and hope to hear lots of good stories from parents. I’m looking forward to it!

Book Giveaway: A Shadow in the Dark July 18, 2012

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Katie McCurdy, teen blogger and book reviewer extraordinaire, recently interviewed me on her site, “Legacy of a Writer.” If you’d like a chance to snag a free copy of my teen mystery, A Shadow in the Dark, enter the raffle at the site: http://katie-mccurdy.blogspot.com/2012/07/ronica-stromberg-is-here-with-us-today.html.  The winner will be drawn in a week, so hustle on over.

May the best bookworm win!

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