Writer-In-Progress

Here’s my problem: I hate taking phone calls from editors on my personal cellphone. Wait, let me clarify: I hate not answering professionally when editors call me. If I don’t recognize the number and assume it’s an editor, I answer with “Hello, this is Beth…”. It works, they don’t seem to mind, but I do.

I want a separate line to ring to my cellphone distinctively so I know it’s from a business number, not my personal one (make sense?).

I’ve been researching this and have narrowed it down to what I need to do: sign up for a service where I get another phone number (“virtual” number) and it gets forwarded to my cell.

My question is this: do you have experience doing this? If so, what would you advise? Which service do you use, and are you happy with it? Is it worth the money, or should I just start answering every call professionally? (I can just hear my mother’s sarcasm now…LOL).

I’d love your insight. If you don’t have experience but know someone who does, by all means invite them. I’m sure more freelancers than just little old me deal with this.

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Remember those old cartoons where Bugs thinks he’s running but he’s actually running in place? (or maybe that’s Daffy or Wile E. Coyote).

I know the feeling.

One of the editors I spoke with last week liked my idea so much he wants the article ASAP (aka “NOW”). I managed to get the first draft done but am stalled awaiting the return calls of the endocrinologists for interviews. Grrr!! I don’t have the interviews with the kids, either, but that’s straightforward. I know the kids and the endos well–the kids will return my emailed interview questions, the endos more traditional and less likely to do the email gig, so I’ve gotta catch them in action with my trusty recorder (I’m buying a new one today and am excited! Getting a digital version….)

Hey, look on the bright side. At least I’m writing and at least someone wants WHAT I’m writing. Not a bad gig….

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Only here for the writing posts? Be warned this one has nothing to do with writing and everything to do with shameless self-promo…

I’m always up for my 15 minutes of fame, and if you listen to ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike from 6-10am each morning, I got 15 seconds of it there this morning.

If you know me, I’m a sports addict and have an opinion on almost any and everything in the sports world, most notably the best looking athletes in professional sports. No sport is safe from my assessments. (Maybe bowling…). Anyway, the discussion this morning centered on the number of Derek Jeter’s past girlfriends who’ve been named to the Maxim Hot 100 (6 total, if you’re interested). Greeny didn’t like the question posed by the Gnome–(this one was for guys):if you could trade places with Jeter, Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, or Tom Brady, who would you trade with?

I didn’t like it either. It didn’t take into account the woman’s perspective! I zipped off an email telling Greeny & Golic that from a woman’s perspective, the question should instead be …which athlete would a woman rather be with…and that since I was a Buckeye fan, I wouldn’t be with Tom Brady, since I’m an Indians fan, I wouldn’t be with Jeter, since I’m a Cavaliers fan, I couldn’t be with Kobe, so that meant I’d have to take Tiger…who does handle a driver better than my hubby (very true..lol).

Greeny read it on the air and both of them got quite a laugh out of it. Greeny made the misassumption that I’m from Cleveland, so I had to contradict that with another email.

After they read the letter (and even my name), my son excitedly called me (he and the hub were on the way to school) and laughed his head off about how cool it was (he was listening in the car; I was on my way out the door to work). Just goes to show you that a bit of quick sarcasm can be quite fun!

Ah, well. Back to normalcy…(does that count as a query submission? LOL)

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I just got an email response to a query that left me scratching my head. As writers, I’d like your input on my evident misinterpretation of the guidelines.

Here’s the guidelines:

WRITERS GUIDELINES
Articles accepted ‘on spec’ and available as reprints.
Queries considered if accompanied by writing samples.
Submissions accepted in Microsoft Word, SimpleText or in body of email.

Here’s what I asked the assistant editor when I called:
“To whom do I mail my query letter and samples?”

Here’s what she said
“xxxx@sssss.com” (obviously changed to protect the innocent–my point is that I deliberately asked about sending the query and the clips)

Here’s what I sent:

A query letter for an article topic covered in the “Types of Articles” section plus two published clips.

Here’s what I got:

Beth–
At this time we are in no position to assign articles (and pay ‘kill’ fees if they are not published.)

We accept article submitted on ‘spec’ and available as reprints.
For our writers guidelines, visit: ssss.com
thanks for your interest…

And here’s me now:

Totally confused. I did exactly what they wanted and seemingly was slapped on the wrist for not knowing what I was doing…even though I explicitly followed their guidelines.

Or am I misinterpreting? (Or misremembering, a la Roger Clemens). I would definitely appreciate your interpretation.

I’m not losing sleep, however. The query is on its way tonight to another publication! 2000 words on spec? Are you crazy?

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I meant that I sent two queries today. Not really queries, but responses to ads posted on a freelancer’s email loop. You know, the kind where you have to send your writer’s resume and clips? Man…that resume was a killer (I hate resume writing) but it’s nice to have it in the hip pocket to shoot out there at a moment’s notice.

I just finished sending out my first letters of interest. You know what those are, right? Where you basically write a self-sales letter to a publisher mentioned your interest in writing for them, include a resume (aha! it strikes again!) and a clip or two. I actually included a link to my online portfolio instead of attaching stuff. You never know if it’ll get through or not…

Have you ever sent LOIs? I haven’t. Heck, I hadn’t heard of ‘em til a few weeks ago, but thought it was worth a shot. My ultimate freelance dream is to have editors call me with article ideas they want me to write (and the other part of that dream is to have them offer me six figs for it LOL), so maybe this is a step in the right direction.

One more last question: I’m working on an article on how to write more descriptively and for all you fiction writers in the crowd, what kinds of questions do you have about writing more descriptively? What problems do you face? I have an idea of how I want to approach the content but it’s always nice to have the ideas of others in mind. Post a reply here or zip me an email at: blog@bethmorrow.com and let me know.

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I’ve been on a roll this week. I think I made myself take myself seriously (if you followed that) and am now on a mission to query as much as possible.

Tuesday I sent out two queries. Nothing back.

Today I sent out one query. Obviously nothing back.

I still have 15 LOIs to send out by the end of this week as my personal challenge.

I did pick up a little something interesting. I volunteer at the local diabetes association and mentioned to the executive director some time back that if they ever wanted writing help to call me. One of the directors emailed yesterday and asked to help on some marketing materials, so I’m going in to talk about that on Friday. Very cool. I know some writers scream bloody murder about doing work for free, but this is my way of using my talent to help something I care passionately about.

Oh, and to make someone (a friend and regular blog reader) happy, I’ve promised to re-visit a comment from the other day: I am a real writer, no matter how cruddy I feel on any given day about the fact that I don’t (yet) rule the writing world. I actually made the comment jokingly (you remember in Shrek–I forget which one–where Gingy turns into a boy and says “I’m a real boy!”–well, that’s the tone of voice I typed “I’m a real writer” in, even if you couldn’t hear it.) (so are you happy, T?)

Off to work out and do a little meditation, then back at the queries. Maybe I can get those LOIs off tonight….or at least make a dent in the list…

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Since the new writing room is 98% done (just general clutter to clear), I’ve been pretending to be a real writer

First and foremost, getting those queries out has been my main objective. I’ve managed to send two more, another just needs a signature line, and I’ve got a few more floating in the back of my head. But I digress…

I read a fascinating diabetes-related story today on some research the FDA has been conducting on teenagers and insulin pumps. For those of you who know me, that’s a near and dear subject to me…my baby brother (who will be 30 (!!!) in September) has been a Type 1 since the age of 18 months, my best friend has been a Type 1 since age two, and I’ve spent the last 15 years working at a summer camp with the most amazing diabetic teenagers you’ve ever met. Anyway–this research was a little fanatical and negative toward teenagers’ use of insulin pumps, and frankly–it ticked me off. (also, for those who know me, some of my best writing comes when I’m mad…lol).

I wanted to refute the research and let parents (and others) know that the insulin pump has been nothing short of life-altering for many of the kids I work with, so I scratched out a query on my lunch break to a diabetes magazine I enjoy reading. In looking over submission guidelines, I had a hunch they wanted samples along with my query even though it didn’t mention it explicitly (call it writer’s intuition), so I called the assistant editor, left a message, and went back to work.

Just before I headed out for the day, the editor returned my call. He confirmed what they wanted, I zipped off my query, and promptly forgot about it on the drive home. After dinner, I happened to glance at my phone and noticed a call I’d missed–the head editor. He left me a great message: not only does he want to discuss my idea further (he really likes the idea), but also wants to discuss the possibility of me doing more writing for them. I can’t wait to call him tomorrow. I probably won’t even sleep. Just like Christmas! I love writing about diabetes with the intention to inform and help. Very cool!

Maybe it’s just me pretending, or this great new striped purple wallpaper that inspires me…but I’m starting to feel like a real writer…lol.

All I can say now is…bring on Tuesday! What are your writing goals for the week?

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