Prioritizing!

If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one. ~Cavett Robert
***

Yesterday’s procrastination post went over real well. I think I hit the nail on the head with what writer’s fear more than writer’s block, more than rejection, MORE than their mother saying, “I told you so!” and that is the Procrastination Bug.

It creeps up on you too, in an unsuspecting manner, like the tick I found on my leg this morning. It clung to my leg like I was a Thanksgiving feast. That’s what the procrastination bug does, finds unsuspecting victims and climbs aboard but once it bites you and has you under its control, you need the next step there is in fighting it and possibly finding a cure for the disease or at least a solution to help you muster through.

Okay, I’ll tell you since you twisted my arm. It is called PRIORITIZING! This is the bug that you WANT to bite you. I’ll call it a ‘friendly leech’ that’ll suck the procrastination venom right out of you and leak the prioritizing bug right into your veins directly!

Let’s see if I can nail this one in five steps:

1. The number one thing that you are going to put into action to deter Procrastination Bug, is SILENCE!
You are going to silence the outside world and stir your inner world into action. I live on a farm in the middle of basically nowhere so silence comes pretty easy. But I’m not just referring to noises that the OUTSIDE world brings in, I’m referring to the inside noises that have gripped you. Inside noises you say? Yes, the internet is inside noise!!! Silence it, just for an hour a day while you PRIORITIZE!

2.  SACRIFICE - Yes, you’re going to need to sacrifice a little time on facebook with your friends. Maybe sacrifice mowing the lawn or weeding the garden or running errands, but somewhere along the day towards PRIORITIZING you need to give up something in order to sit down and write!

3. IGNORE - Yup, that too. It may feel like you are ignoring your friends and they might wonder what happened to you while you’re not ‘active’ in their online events, but you show them this post and let them know, “I’m not ignoring you, I’m just prioritizing my time.” They’ll toss the old guilt trip at you and say, “What? I’m not a priority?” And you’ll answer, “Not when it comes to becoming a published writer and playing Farmville on facebook, no, sorry, you’re NOT.” 

4. FOCUS -  This is the hard part. This is where you are going to write until your fingers bleed, even if you have nothing to write. Sit and make something appear. The more you put into practice the art of prioritizing, words will flow and you’ll be banishing procrastination.

5. ACT -   This one is the hardest of the five! This is where you’re going to need to connect to the internet, and find a market for your work! No, LIKING everything on facebook is not searching markets, it’s not a priority to even glance at facebook. We need MARKETS!!! Now get to it!

Monday Monday...

1Chron. 29: 11 Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
***

Well yes, today is Monday.

Had a nice weekend, rich with family and church. Now today is Monday my rest day? ha ha ha, as if. Cleaning, trudging, working, preparing, that’s what’s on today’s agenda. But I couldn’t go on with this week without giving you something to do in your writing life.

Have you been sending out your work? Have you made it a priority? Don’t worry, I’m the procrastinating type too. Maybe next week my vision will be a little clearer as to what on this God’s green earth I’m supposed to do!

Here’s a market or two from Funds for Writer's, (one of my favorite sites) to keep you busy writing AND submitting!

UNTIED SHOELACES OF THE MIND
http://www.untiedshoelacesofthemind.com/sample/

Pays three cents/word up to $30 for short fiction.
Submit genre or literary stories between 100-2,000
words. Our preference is between 500-1,000 word stories,
but we will happily accept longer stories. See online
for defined categories.


OUTSHINE
http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/outshine-submission-guidelines/

In dire need of submissions. A Twitterzine for optimistic,
near future prose poems. They're flash length, and look ahead.
Looking for: prose poems of optimistic, near future SF that
fit within the 'tweet' limits (check out Twitter); i.e.
maximum 140 characters long. Pays $5 each. Limit one submission
per week. Only pays through PayPal.

WHISPERS PUBLISHING CONTEST
http://www.whispershome.com/contests.html

NO ENTRY FEE
Beginning January 1, 2010, Whispers Publishing will host
the "Make it Quick" writing contest. The contest is open
to all writers published and unpublished. Looking for
Erotiquiks which are hot, steamy stories of 2,000 words
or less. These must be complete stories with a hero, heroine,
and a plot. Be creative and don't limit yourself. Any genre
or time period is acceptable, but the story must follow all
of Whispers guidelines and can not include any of the taboos
listed on the submissions page. So whether it's the West you
long to write about or a futuristic world of your own
creating, challenge yourself by tightening your story into
2,000 words or less. Deadline January 31, 2010.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $25, an award
certificate, a contract for publication, and a promotion
package upon publication of the work.

First Place Winner: $15, an award certificate, and a
contract for publication. Second Place Winner: $10, an
award certificate, and a contract for publication.
Third Place Winner: $5 and an award certificate with
consideration for publication at editor's discretion.
Two Honorable Mentions will receive award certificates.

To market, to market...

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.
A. A. Milne

So you want to market what you write? I have subscribed to hundreds of Writing related newsletters only to be let down. I’ve canceled most of them because the links to a market was either useless because it went nowhere, or the link took me to something to buy, like a BOOK on markets.

I find that in a world where every dollar counts, even the Writer's Marketing industry is trying to make that buck too. Here’s an example: I get the email, open it to find an authors note, oh he or she is so sweet when they use my name like we’re friends from way back.

Joni, how would you like...etcetera. Here comes the sales pitch. To keep our newsletter FREE we’re making this offer to you at no charge. Link link link. Free market database this is not!

Okay where is the free market database? You click the link and it takes you to sign up pages, offers of purchasing a market data base, or our site is under construction.

I don’t know, people. I think I’ll just stick to blogging since the writing industry is so overwhelmed with competition. NOT! As a writer we need to persevere in this dangling economy and dig until our nails bleed!

So without further adieu, here is some legitimate markets that might look good to you!

p.s. excuse the blood smeared page. *wink*


A Cup of Comfort
Frequency: 4 books per year
Circulation: 60,000-250,000 (depending on book)
Accepts Email Submissions: Yes
Website URL: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/GeneralMenu/
Description: Best-selling series of books featuring inspiring true stories
Editor(s): Colleen Sell
Email: wordsinger@aol.com
Phone: 541-942-3405
Fax: 508-427-6790
Guidelines URL: http://www.cupofcomfort.com/WritersGuidelines/ for writer's guidelines information.
Address: P.O. Box 863
Eugene, OR 97440
USA
Needs: Stories must be true, original, inspiring or uplifting, written in third or first person, and in English.

Preference given to anecdotal and emotionally evocative creative nonfiction stories and narrative essays. Please, no poetry, journalistic articles, commentaries, profiles, eulogies, letters, journal entries, diatribes, composition papers, book chapters, or fiction.
Length: 1000-2000 words

Payment: $500 grand prize per book/contest; $100 each for all other published stories. Upon publication. Contributors receives byline and free copy of book.
Length: Up to 6,000 words

Art/Photo Needs: Accept artwork (typically photography) for cover, no inside artwork.

Payment: $5 and contributor's copy

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Publisher: Penny Publications
Established: 1956
Website URL: http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/
Description: Alfred Hitchcock Mystery is a monthly publication that presents stories packed with suspense, mystery, and intrigue.
Guidelines URL: http://www.themysteryplace.com/ahmm/guidelines/ for writer's guidelines information.
Newsstand Listing: Subscription Information http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000066SZO/writerswrite
Address: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
475 Park Avenue South
New York , NY 10016
USA
Needs: Because this is a mystery magazine, the stories we buy must fall into that genre in some sense or another. We are interested in nearly every kind of mystery, however: stories of detection of the classic kind, police procedurals, private eye tales, suspense, courtroom dramas, stories of espionage, and so on. We ask only that the story be about a crime (or the threat or fear of one). We sometimes accept ghost stories or supernatural tales, but those also should involve a crime. You might find it useful to read one or more issues of AHMM; that should give you an idea of the kind of fiction we buy.

Length: We prefer that stories not be longer than 14,000 words; most of the stories in the magazine are considerably shorter than that.

Christian Science Monitor
Established: 1909
Frequency: daily
Accepts Email Submissions: Yes
Website URL: http://www.csmonitor.com
Description: International, general-interest daily newspaper published as a public service of the Christian Science Church. Pulitzer-Prize winning; est. 1908.
Guidelines URL: Click here http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/guidelines.html for writer's guidelines information.
Address: One Norway Street
Boston, MA 02115
USA

Needs: The Home Forum is looking for upbeat, personal essays of from 400 to 1,100 words. We also publish poetry (25 lines is a long poem, for us). Every Tuesday we publish Kidspace, feature stories (main story and at least one sidebar) aimed at children ages 6 to 12.

Payment: Personal essays: $75 to $150, depending on the way it's used, length, and the editor's subjective assessment.
Poetry: $20 (haiku) to $40.
Kidspace articles: $150 for main story of 750 to 900 words, $50 to $75 per sidebar. We like to have at least one sidebar per Kidspace, ideally two.

You want more??? More markets? Don’t let me do all the work. Try and find some on your own. You’re welcome to come back and share with me!

Have a gracious glorious day! And remember... always find something within every single day that you live, to be thankful for. You’ll be better off!

Market Monday

Market Monday

Cross that bridge from writer to marketable writer. *smile*
Here’s a new one for all of my followers. How about some markets for you to send your work out to? I’m in WVU, Writer’s Village University, and the one thing we don’t have is a room where we can post markets to help other writer’s along. It’s like this big search for yourself kind of attitude and I’m of the sharing type, so here! Here is some markets and I’ll make Monday’s my market day.Just a few to get you started. Next Monday, you’ll find more as I pretty much know what my fellow classmates write. Hope you all enjoy!

Title: THE UPPER ROOM, USA
Description:Encouraging Christians in their personal life of prayer and
discipleship.
Pays: $25 per meditation, upon publication.
Click Guidelines: http://www.upperroom.org/devotional/how_to_write.asp

Popular newspaper:

Title: USA TODAY, USA
Description: Accepts unsolicited opinion pieces for The Forum, its Op-Ed page.
Columns typically run 650 to 750 words in length. Paying market.
Guidelines: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-08-10-guidelines_x.htm

Title Christian Science Monitor
Description An international daily newspaper produced by The Christian Science Publishing Society. Pays up to $225.
Web site http://www.csmonitor.com
Guidelines http://www.csmonitor.com/aboutus/guidelines.html
Country USA

Title: U.S. Kids is committed to publishing high-quality health and
fitness material to educate children. They publish the following
three magazines:

Title: TURTLE MAGAZINE
http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/magazines/turtle.shtml
Description: Magazine for preschool kids ages 3-5. Pays up to $0.35 per word.
Fiction up to 350 words, nonfiction up to 200 words. Guidelines:
Guidelines: http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/writersguidelines.shtml

Title: HUMPTY DUMPTY
http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/magazines/humptydumpty.shtml
Description: Magazine for kids ages 5-7. Pays up to $0.35 per word.
Fiction/nonfiction up to 450 words.
Guidelines: http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/writersguidelines.shtml

Title: JACK & JILL
http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/magazines/jackandjill.shtml
Description: Magazine for kids ages 8-12. Pays up to $0.25 per word.
Fiction/nonfiction: up to 700 words.
Guidelines: http://www.uskidsmags.com/cbhi/writersguidelines.shtml


Title Dialogue Magazine
Description Welcomes the submission of freelance material from visually impaired authors for possible publication. Fiction and non-fiction. Pays $15 to $35.
Web site: http://www.blindskills.com/dialogue.html
Guidelines: http://www.blindskills.com/submit.html
Country USA
Region North America
Pay PAY
Payscale UNSP