Writing for magazines - Awful process

amother

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 7:29 pm

Question - is it possible to stay anon on a substack?

And I changed the title in honor of you taking it so good-naturedly, all those jabs, DVOM, to be honest, it did sting a little when you commented regarding my word and I hate when people do that when we write informally here. But I do love how you didn't let it get to you when others really piled it on you.

amother

Valerian

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 7:34 pm

I write for magazines and it sure is a job. Took some time to reach this point but by now I have long-standing relationships with editors and steady work b"H. I've gotten quick at my craft and I churn out multiple articles in various genres on a monthly basis. Magazine writing has helped hone my craft and allowed me to branch out into various other forms of writing - its a huge industry. I've been writing as a side job for a while but it's reached a point (baruch Hashem a million times) that I'm seriously considering going into it full-time.

Magazine writing alone can make money - not huge money - but a nice amount for the hours spent at a no expenses, on your own time job.

amother

Calendula

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 7:58 pm

The one time I sent in an article to a magazine, I got burnt so badly. The magazine agreed to sent it to me after editing before printing. Never happened. They also told me they would let me know when it would be printed. Never happened. They also told me they would pay me for my work. Never happened. You know what did happen? They took my article, plagiarized it, wrote it under a different persons name and told me that they are sorry, my writing was too awful to print. Lol, writing is now my parnassah. (Not magazine writing, other forms of writing.)
P.S. If this story sounds familiar to you, I did write a thread about it at the time. (I’m not plagiarizing lol)

Laiya

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 8:02 pm

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.

If I can jump in, you're not wrong, but I think Kiwi was referring to proving it.

Laiya

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 8:16 pm

DVOM wrote:

Ahhhhh! I tried so hard to hold back, but I just can't anymore!

Your not using the word 'resonate' correctly. You'd like your writing to resonate with readers. You believe your writing has resonance. But saying 'copywriting is not resonate' and 'my writing is resonate' is not proper English.

Ok! Sorry! Grammer police signing off now!

This might be a spin off, but I notice people seem to invent new conjugations and usages pretty often in informal conversation.

English has little internal consistency, so why not? Sometimes the new word works!

vintagebknyc

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 8:26 pm

Laiya wrote:

If I can jump in, you're not wrong, but I think Kiwi was referring to proving it.

You only have to prove it if someone has stolen your copyright, at which point you need to register it with the US copyright office.

Kiwi13

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 8:36 pm

Laiya wrote:

If I can jump in, you're not wrong, but I think Kiwi was referring to proving it.

Yup. It tends to put people at ease to have SOMETHING to show.

ectomorph

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 9:46 pm

amother Mocha wrote:

I'm also inspired to start a substack. But how does one get an audience?

I posted on Facebook to begin with, or you could post here on ima... Yael said it's okay as long as not making money off of it

My first 20 were family and friends. Now I'm up to around 50, six months in. I'm not exactly impressively successful. It does make me happy that more people are reading my work.

ectomorph

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 9:48 pm

amother OP wrote:

Yes, you can be anonymous on substack. You'll find that after a while you'd rather have more readers and deal with people knowing who you are.

DVOM

Thu, Jan 19 2023, 10:08 pm

amother OP wrote:

I love the new title!

And I'm sorry for the sting. I really didn't intend for it to come across harshly.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 1:52 am

amother Skyblue wrote:

What is substack?

It's something similar to a blog. I'm very technologically incompetent, and did not have much trouble setting it up.
This is mine:
https://ishayirashashem.substack.com/

People can subscribe to receive updates in their email, or you can add email addresses to the list and they can be subscribed that way.

It is totally free. They do have an option for paid subscriptions, but I'm not going in that direction. I want people to be able to access my work.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 1:58 am

I took out the referral link, in case it would look like advertising. You could pm me if you want a referral link.

This is a referral link, if you want to use it. I earn absolutely no money, but I'd love to help anyone set up a substack. There's no ads, it literally takes 5 minutes, it's free, and if let's say 2 people read my stuff who otherwise wouldn't, that's already worth it for me.

Amelia Bedelia

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 3:51 am

ectomorph wrote:

Ectomorph, I read one of your posts on your blog and it reminded me of what Ami prints in their Our Days section. Maybe you can submit some (original, not from your blog) pieces to them.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 4:58 am

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

Ectomorph, I read one of your posts on your blog and it reminded me of what Ami prints in their Our Days section. Maybe you can submit some (original, not from your blog) pieces to them.

Hey! My blog is original!

I even checked by trying to get the AI chat bot to write one of my posts. It's impossible because the Mikraos Gedolos with meforshim is not in their data set.

I write a post once a week. I am not submitting to any magazines. The whole joy I get out of it is personal. If only one person would enjoy it, it is worth it for me.

Imagine if I started trying to submit articles, I would be sad whenever it was rejected and happy when it was accepted... I have a job also. And I see from OPs experience how draining those rejections can be.

I have a bunch of little kids who need my emotional energy. This is just a fun outlet that I highly recommend as a hobby. In my case I find myself learning more Torah because I check sources more carefully knowing that anyone could read it.

amother

Mocha

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:03 am

ectomorph wrote:

So for people who are not on social media and want to remain anonymous, there isn't really a way to gain a following.

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:21 am

amother Mocha wrote:

So for people who are not on social media and want to remain anonymous, there isn't really a way to gain a following.

Why is the goal to gain a following?

ectomorph

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:28 am

The question is how frum newspapers make it hard to break in, which is making the OP feel discouraged from writing.

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.

Amelia Bedelia

Fri, Jan 20 2023, 5:28 am

ectomorph 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.