Hello, Renegade Writers! I have a new free teleclass scheduled. But before we get into that, I wanted to remind you of a couple of Very Important Things:
1. My next Write for Magazines 8-week e-course starts on Monday, March 7. The Premium version includes 8 weeks of unlimited e-mail support, and I offer very thorough critiques of ideas, the markets you choose to pitch, and your query title, lede, body, and conclusion. Previous students have landed assignments from Spirituality & Health (with a cover story!), SELF, Woman’s Day, E: The Environmental Magazine, Washington Parent, and more.
Here’s what one student had to say:
At the very end of 2006, I decided to take one of your courses with hopes of starting a freelance career. In January 2007, I bought Query Letters That Rocked. I completely changed the way I did things…the first story I sold this year was to USA Today! Since then, I have sold stories to The New York Times, American Cheerleader, Wondertime, American Baby, Discover, Yoga Journal, Spirituality & Health, Web MD, Mother Jones, Fit Pregnancy, Delicious Living and Plenty. I’m now having people come to me– have signed on to do some niche blogging and just accepted a trade article today.
—Rachel Mosteller
I limit the class to 10 participants — so I can give each student the attention he or she needs — and there are five signed up now, so if you’re interested please sign up soon! Get details, download the FAQ, and sign up on the e-course page.
2. My new e-book Get Unstuck! For Freelancers: A 6-Week Course to Boost Your Motivation, Organization, and Productivity—So You Can Do More Work in Less Time, Make More Money, and Enjoy the Freelance Lifestyle has been getting a great response! I turned my popular Get Unstuck e-course into an e-book, so you can learn to become a productive writer at a fraction of the cost (just $9.95!). To get more details and to purchase the e-book, go to the e-books page.
Now, on to the teleclass:
Five Reasons Why Editors Won’t Buy Your Great Ideas, taught by Diana Burrell
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 8:30-9:30 pm ET (Note that this is East Coast time; please check for the correct time in your time zone. Also note that this is PM, not AM!)
Topic: Five Reasons Why Editors Won’t Buy Your Great Ideas: You’ve come up with one of the best story ideas of your life. You’ve researched the subject thoroughly, read six back issues of the magazine you’re pitching, and you’re so sure this idea will sell, you’re already booking interviews with your sources. But then your editor writes, “I’m sorry, it’s a great idea but not right now.” Has she lost her marbles? How can she leave such a perfect idea on the table like that?
In this teleseminar, freelance food journalist, author, and ghostwriter Diana Burrell will share with you the five surprising reasons your editor may be giving your great ideas the thumbs down. And by the way, none of these reasons will be that you haven’t read six back issues of the magazine or that you spelled her name wrong. Once you understand what may be happening behind the scenes, you’ll be better prepared to turn the nays into yays with future ideas. There will be time after the presentation to ask questions about generating story ideas for articles and other fr
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Carma Dutra will host this teleseminar with special guest, Suzanne Lieurance, author of over a dozen published books for children, instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and found and director of the National Writing for Children Center.
Title: Sandlot Summit
I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails over the past couple months from writers who wanted to take my Story Ideas That Sell workshop. I had a lot going on in my life, so I pulled the workshop down. It was just too much for me at the time, plus some of my students wanted me to offer one-on-one coaching along with the workshop and I just couldn’t figure out how to fit that all in.
My life has settled down somewhat, and I was able to give the material a second look and figure out a way to provide more coaching and hand-holding. So I’m happy to announce that I’ll be offering my three-week class, Become an Idea Machine: How to (Painlessly) Build Up an Inventory of Story Ideas to Sell to Magazines, starting Monday, May 17. You can take the class with e-mail support ($149) or without ($99), although if you really struggle coming up with salable story ideas, I strongly urge you to sign up for the premium level.
What you’ll get from this course:
I’ve reworked the material from my “Story Idea Workshop” for this new course, but if you’ve already taken that class, I’d urge you not to sign up for it again UNLESS you want to do it again with e-mail support. Contact me if you’re interested in doing this; you only have to pay the difference between the Basic and Premium levels, which is $50.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be doing a teleseminar with Linda Formichelli, tentatively titled Five Easy Ways to Generate Story Ideas That Sell. Details TK. In the meantime, you can sign up for my class at the Renegade Writer site.