Writing for magazines - Awful process

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:31 am

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

I meant original, as in not published anywhere else. I'm not sure Ami would be willing to publish something that was previously posted on a blog.

Jinx, we posted at the same time.

I just explained this. Read my above post.

At the end of the day, you're describing a catch 22. Op can't know if people like her writing without making some of it public. But she also can't make it public without being able to publish it. Plus, she has a family and a job.

I explained above why getting published is not the value of writing.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:54 am

amother Mocha wrote:

The goal is to have people read my stuff, no? Otherwise, why bother?

By people, you seem to mean " a respectable number of people".

If you post here on ima, people read your posts. Yet that isn't satisfying you for some reason. Because you would like to be appreciated as a person. Substack gives that to you, because it gives you a platform that is all yours.

The question from OP was how frum newspapers make it hard to break in, which is making the OP feel discouraged from writing. It's a valid point. I feel bad for OP, whose story was really funny, if that's the one that got posted about rato phobia.

I don't know, and frankly I don't even read frum newspapers, I only read Tanach with meforshim.

It really doesn't matter. If my goal was to reach thousands of people, or to book speaking jobs, or to be known as an expert, maybe I'd want my stuff in Mishpacha. But my goal is to serve Hashem, and He knows it exists, and if people read it they read it.

There is value to doing things like writing, and very little of that value is in the money or honor you can get from doing it.

allthingsblue

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 6:03 am

ectomorph wrote:

As a reader of Jewish magazines I appreciate when magazines only choose quality pieces. I only buy magazines that have quality pieces; I avoid the ones that seem to print fluffy juvenile pieces etc.

It may be frustrating for writers but as a reader I appreciate that.

If you want to build an audience without a magazine there are ways to do that with effort and persistence.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 6:14 am

allthingsblue wrote:

Quality is subjective. It's not a perfect meritocracy. That's what op is saying.

number

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 7:40 am

vintagebknyc wrote:

I just did a quick Google search because we had different ideas about this: your work is copyrighted just by writing it down. No more is needed.

I still don’t know who owns the posts here.

Imamother owns them. https://www.imamother.com/forum/terms.php

number

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 7:46 am

amother OP wrote:

I like you! LOL

You're right! I first titled it why is writing so cheap? And that might be not perfect either, but the reason I changed it was because I thought people won't understand what I'm saying. On Imamother it's less about the actual grammar rules and the mechanics of writing, rather for the message to be understood.

But I admit, the technical parts of writing are not my thing. I write well but I definitely need good editing because I just don't know how to get the grammar straight. Especially when I'm writing fast or informally without paying attention to the mechanics.

So are you getting your pieces edited before submitting? Or are you sending them in raw, with spelling and grammar mistakes? It’s going to be a lot harder to get accepted as a new writer if your writing needs lots of cleanup.

shaqued_almond

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 7:56 am

I want to clarify something. Just because you got rejected doesn't mean they didn't like it or that you're a bad writer. Many times it's either that it wasn't something they were looking for or they received a different piece that they prefer. As kiwi said with non fiction you can often pitch, and fiction you query. You could submit to multiple outlets.
I'm not sure if it was the OP, someone said that they need a lot of editing. This will sound harsh but an editor is not supposed to do the work for you, they're not ghost writers. For most of us who aren't geniuses or prodigies, we have to develop this craft through lots of writing and reading. There are no shortcuts. The good news is that the more you write, the better you'll get.
Being a Jewish mom this process will be slower. I speak from experience. Behatzlacha!

vintagebknyc

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 8:15 am

number wrote:

Even as a pro writer, I put EVERYTHING through Grammarly.com for spelling, grammar, etc. There is a free version that works well enough.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 8:34 am

number wrote:

Imamother owns them. https://www.imamother.com/forum/terms.php

That's why I suggest substack. Imamother isn't intended to be a publishing platform. It's a discussion platform.

You want the anonymous feature, you need to accept the platform.

I am not anonymous, and I write on Substack, and people cannot post anonymously there. I am happy to link to my substack from imamother, and have people discuss my posts here. Even if they're being critical.

Basically, you can't own your writing if you also want to be anonymous. You have to pick one.

vintagebknyc

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 8:40 am

ectomorph wrote:

Yes, you can. How do you think Anonymous does it? You can buy a site through a company that will not identify the owner to Whois, pretty cheaply.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 8:42 am

vintagebknyc wrote:

Yes, you can. How do you think Anonymous does it? You can buy a site through a company that will not identify the owner to Whois, pretty cheaply.

Anyone posting any amount of detail will be easily doxxed. The only way to avoid that is to completely split your online and offline life, and that's a different challenge.

vintagebknyc

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 9:44 am

Laiya wrote:

How is this different than Word's spellcheck and grammar check?

Good Q: It picks up different things--together they catch more than apart. I generally run both at work, because I have Word there. At home I use google docs just run everything through grammarly.

cbsp

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 9:46 am

vintagebknyc wrote:

Good Q: It picks up different things--together they catch more than apart. I generally run both at work, because I have Word there. At home I use google docs just run everything through grammarly.

Will works run through grammarly become fodder for AI?

vintagebknyc

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 10:15 am

ectomorph wrote:

Anything you post on the internet will, though. Anything indexed by google

Define posted?

The whole public section of this site is public and therefore fodder. As are millions of articles about everything under the sun. I'm not worried.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 11:02 am

The reason not to post your personal work online is not AI.

It's because if you want to build a body of work, you should put it on a platform that supports that.

Facebook , imamother, Instagram, TikTok are not publishing platforms. Substack, blogger, WordPress, etc are platforms you can use, and reserve your site name etc.

Writing is a hobby, but just like all jobs have fun parts, writing has some administrative parts.

Why would you trust random editors who maybe don't like the look of your last name? Or are having a bad day? Their rejection doesn't mean it's not worth you writing.

Even if only 5 people like your stuff, that's five more than would have liked it if you kept it private.