IN THIS ISSUE
- From the Editor’s Desk: I want you to make an (excellent) income
- On The Wordling: Goal setting for writers
- News & Views: Why you should be wary of paying for submissions
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
Hi again, writer friends,
I hate that so many writers don’t make a liveable income.
I really, really hate it. It’s the sole reason I started blogging for writers way back in 2002, the reason I started teaching courses in 2014, and the primary reason I decided to create this newsletter and website.
The Wordling’s mission is to help writers make money. Of course writers need help in learning how to write better and craft brilliant prose, and there are people far more qualified than me who can teach that. My speciality is business. For me, it’s important that you get paid, and that you get paid exceptionally well.
I have been a writer for 20+ years and every single year, I have made a full-time living from freelancing. Some years it’s harder than others, but I can’t think of a single year in which the overriding mood of the industry hasn’t been pessimistic. When I started out in 2002, Western writers were blaming Indians like me for “stealing all the good writing opportunities.” In 2008, it was the economy. In 2016, it was the political establishment. And now, in 2024, it’s AI.
In 2014, I saw my journalism income dipping and started learning about content marketing. I doubled my income that year while working half the hours. You won’t believe how many hateful messages I got that year, mostly from journalists telling me that I had “sold out.” Those same journalists (I won’t name names) are now either in full-time jobs or… you guessed it… writing for businesses.
My point is this: No matter which country I have lived in, the state of the economy, or my own personal challenges, I have made a living from my writing. Most years, I’ve grown my income. And it’s because I believe one simple thing: There is always work out there and the writers with a good attitude, good business skills, and a good understanding of the market are the ones who will get it.
That’s what I do here. I share with you the trends and opportunities in the marketplace week after week in this newsletter. But I also want to show you how to build those business and marketing skills to not just get work now, but to maintain it no matter what’s going on with the economy or the world. If you want to learn what the opportunities are, this newsletter is a great start. But if you want to learn how to take advantage of them, sign up for Wordling Plus.
As I said, my focus is on helping writers make money. It’s exactly what Wordling Plus was created for.
And if you want to get in at a super low price, you can do so until the end of the day. Tonight, at 11:59pm EST, the annual price of Wordling Plus will double from $499 to $990.
My goal for this membership is not to give you content, it’s to give you results.
All you need is a single additional assignment to pay off the cost of the entire year of the membership. Which, if you do what I teach, you could get within days.
Here’s everything you need to know about the membership.
Remember, price doubles tonight. I’ll see you there!
Enjoy the issue!
Natasha Khullar Relph
Editor, The Wordling
NEW ON THE WORDLING
How to Set Meaningful Writing Goals
What you aim for will dictate what you achieve. So here’s how to set writing goals that set you up for success.
UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS
MARCH GROUP COACHING
with Natasha Khullar Relph
When: Wednesday, March 6
11am New York | 4pm London | 9:30pm New Delhi
The first of our monthly live coaching calls! We’ll help you work through mindset challenges, brainstorm story ideas, come up with ideas for publications to pitch, critique your work, and give personal guidance on the next steps in your career.
100 LOIs IN 30 DAYS
with Natasha Khullar Relph
When: Wednesday, March 13
11am New York | 4pm London | 9:30pm New Delhi
A few years go, I took a break from freelancing to write books. When I returned, I went from 0 clients to $12,000 in monthly income within six months. I did it all with LOIs.
In this masterclass, I’ll show you my exact process for sending out 100 LOIs in 30 Days in less than an hour each day.
NEWS & VIEWS:
How the pay-to-play model keeps writers broke
I’m rarely surprised anymore, but I have to admit I did not see this one coming: Narratively updated their submissions guidelines recently and are now charging for pitches and submissions.
“Please note that it now costs $1 to send pitches and $5 to send full stories,” they note.
Narratively is, rightly, being criticized for this decision because they’ve introduced pay-to-play in a part of the industry that has so far, been free from it. However, when it comes to contests, short stories, and essays in smaller, literary pubs, pay-to-play is common, even expected.
And that’s where the economics, from the writer’s point of view, start to feel icky.
On Lit Mag News, Benjamin Davis offers a breakdown: “Let’s take a closer look at a few popular contests. In 2019, The Masters Review tweeted that they’d received over 2,000 submissions for their Flash Fiction Contest, a yearly contest awarding $3,600 in prizes. This year, the submission fee for this contest is $20. Assuming their submission count is similar, that’ll be $40,000 being run through this one contest.”
Will this money be spent on acquiring readership, supporting more writers, or increasing the prize money? I don’t want to pick on any publication in particular since this is an industry-wide problem, but experience says that after salaries and fees, much will be spent on promoting the next contest.
Davis notes that the average fee for a contest is $15-20, while the average contest payout (totaling up the prizes) is around $1,500.
The pay-to-play problem isn’t limited to lit mags. Big literary prizes, such as the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize, are inaccessible to many small and independent presses due to their terms and conditions. “Barriers including £5,000 contributions for ‘publicity and promotion’; supplying up to 100 copies of the novel, offering 70% discount on cover price; or ensuring print runs of 1,000 are available at the time of shortlisting are all difficult for small presses,” writes Claire Howdle.
So, what does this mean for you? Three things:
1. Understand that money flows toward the writer. Avoid paying to submit your work, especially to publications no one’s ever heard of. That’s what Substack and Medium are for.
2. If you have the money to spend on your writing, use it to run ads to a paid newsletter or well-reviewed book. Expect to make money from your writing business, because it is a business.
3. Remember, if a publication is asking you to pay for submissions writers, and not readers, have become their business model. This is usually the first sign that a publication is in trouble.
On Lit Mag News, Davis notes, “Profiting within an industry is one thing (i.e. using money to create positive change). Profiting off an industry is a more pernicious monster that we should learn to recognize and perhaps even overcome.”
Knowing the difference between the two will serve you well in your career.
ALSO SEE
Last week, Vice Media announced that it would stop publishing Vice.com, which will result in hundreds of job cuts.
The New York Times reports on how Instagram has become the go-to news source for many.
And The Conversation looks at what’s behind the astonishing rise in LGBTQ+ romance literature.
GLOBAL REPORT
NIGERIA: “Ifeakandu’s work is part of a boom in books by L.G.B.T.Q. writers across Africa. Long obscured in literature and public life, their stories are taking center stage in works that are pushing boundaries across the continent—and winning rave reviews.”
UKRAINE: “Sergatskova first encountered VR safety training at the 2022 annual meeting of the ACOS Alliance, a global network of more than 150 newsrooms and press freedom organizations working to promote safe and responsible journalism practices. In June 2023, 40 journalists participated in its first HEFAT (Hostile Environment and First Aid Training) course using VR modules—on reporting on civil unrest and the other on digital security.”
INDIA: “When a joint investigation published in December 2023 by Amnesty International and The Washington Post revealed that journalists in India were being targeted by the hacking spyware, Pegasus, Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of The Wire, wasn’t surprised his phone was among those being surveilled… Developed by the Israeli firm, NSO Group, and sold only to government and law-enforcement agencies, Pegasus is a cyberweapon capable of infiltrating mobile phones and gathering extensive data from text messages, emails and more. It can also activate phone cameras and microphones—all without the phone owner’s knowledge.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I believe that half the trouble in the world comes from people asking ‘What have I achieved?’ rather than ‘What have I enjoyed?’ I’ve been writing about a subject I love as long as I can remember—horses and the people associated with them, anyplace, anywhere, anytime. I couldn’t be happier knowing that young people are reading my books. But even more important to me is that I’ve enjoyed so much the writing of them.”
— Walter Farley, The Black Stallion
HOORAY! YOU MADE IT TO THE END!
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