How to earn Dollars Writing Short Sentences and Fillers

Most people think writing is too hard, or is a job for the more talented person. That is wrong.

Anyone can learn how to earn money, writing things on subjects they know something about and will enjoy doing it.

I intend to show you how to do that, by writing fillers and reader's letters. Use your imagination and write verses for all types of greeting cards, poetry, puzzles or whatever you put your mind too. Anyone can do it.

The subjects can be anything you choose to write about. Of course, like anything you need to study the market that you intend to write for. That means reading the books or magazines you already enjoy reading, and more.

Best of all, you earn money for doing it! Here are a few examples

Uses for short sentences otherwise known as fillers

Most magazines and advertisers use short sentences for:

• Short interesting articles to attract people's attention.
• They will fill an otherwise empty space on their page.
• Short sentences encourage readers' participation.
• They create involvement in their magazines.

What you need to get started?

Believe me; you do not need to outlay thousands of dollars to start! To write a readers letter you need paper and pen, a few stamps and envelopes to enclose your precious work.

To supply articles for editors that accept work via emails or similar format you need a computer. Although, they still accept neat hand written articles today.

Whether you use a computer or write by hand, it is essential that your work is neat and tidy. It must be free of errors. If you send in hand written work, make sure you use a dictionary and keep a copy of all your work. The advantages of having a computer is you have a built in spell checker, and the benefit of storing copies on disk for your future reference. Some editors will accept manuscripts sent on disk.

Finding markets

As I said earlier, you need to study the markets that you wish to write for. The libraries will have reference books; the best one I know is Writers and Artists Year Book. It lists the Newspapers, book publishers, magazine publishers. It includes other helpful information of what the publisher needs in his magazine.

When you next visit the doctors' surgery, have a look at their recent magazines. Jot down the editors names and addresses. Look for new editions of magazines from friends. Keep an up to date list of this information. Make a note of the column or readers' letters that you could submit articles and letters to. If you cannot find the information you need, write to that particular magazine for their guidelines. They will send this out to you. These will include the length of article, type of font, what type of article they accept etc.

Studying your markets

I cannot stress enough the importance of doing this. These are the reasons why you need to study your markets before sending anything away:

For starters, you could not send an article about fishing to a modelling magazine. Naturally, they would not consider your article. You need to know what kind of subjects and articles the magazine is looking for. By reading their magazines, you will know.

Some magazines and newspapers use particular size articles. You need to study the paragraphs in current issues. Note, the style, viewpoint, and length and whether they use photos. This is where a computer comes in handy, it has a word counter, which saves you a lot of work.

What suits one market will definitely not suit another. If you are not sure, send an enquiry letter away, and ask for the particular magazines guidelines. This tells you what type and size of font, how many words, what topics they accept.

Never send anything to editors until you check the above things out thoroughly. Bad research will mean the difference in your articles selection before others or not at all.

Try to write something you have personally experienced yourself. How it affected you and your family. It could be how you felt and coped with an illness or your most embarrassing situation. Your particular experience with the birth of your first child.

Find a unique angle to this subject. Either the humorous or catastrophic side of it. It could be this opinion of yours that you read in your next magazine or paper and be paid for it.

Read, read and read. While reading an article you may find something that will trigger another idea or use a printed article in a similar way by changing the topics.

Reply to letters or articles you read in a magazine with your own opinion on a particular subject.

Use your camera and find unusual circumstances. Look for a misspelt sign, one with a humorous angle, celebrities, or your children's comical experiences etc.

Listen to people chatting on the bus or train for snippets of conversation that may be useful. Keep a notebook and write down any ideas you think of before you forget them. You may not have a use for it now but next week or month it may be important.

Read other magazines or school newsletters for inspiration. Listen to children's funny sayings. Kids come home with a mountain of funny questions, so innocently asked that you could use or reword.

You need to do all of the above to find new ideas to write about 

Small Australian Directory of Markets

Suggested list. Always check for the companies guidelines before sending articles out. The details on this list may have changed since this information was collected.

Fremantle Arts Centre Press

25 Quarry Street,

Fremantle,

WA 6160

Web Address: http://www.facp.iinet.net.au/

Email: facp@iinet.net.au

New Idea

Private Bag 9960

North Sydney

NSW 2059

Web Address: www.newidea.com.au

Email: newidea@pacpubs.com.au

The Age Company Ltd

250 Spencer Street

Melbourne,

Victoria. 3000

Web Address: www.theage.com.au

Email: newsdesk@theage.com.au

The Sydney Morning Herald

GPO Box 3771

Sydney 2001

Web address: http://www.smh.com.au/

Email Letters: letters@smh.com.au

Your Garden magazine

Private Bag 9850

North Sydney

NSW 2059

Web address: www.yourgarden.com.au

Email: yg@pacpubs.com.au

Woman's Day

ACP Publishing

54 Park Street,

Sydney NSW 2000

Web address: www.womansday.com

Email: womansday@acp.com.au

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