The WMF Archives

By Carol Tice

Why? Because many publications prefer not to be listed in this doorstop-sized guide, as they feel they get too many low-quality queries as a result. The Writer's Market is by no means a comprehensive guide to every writing opportunity out there -- It's a guide to all the publications where an editor was willing to fill out their form and send it back.

In addition, new magazines are created all the time, and it could take a year or three before they appear. There are also whole categories of publications -- say, company magazines or alumni magazines -- that the Market doesn't have much information about...lots on consumer mags and trade publications, but it's weak in some other areas that are great-paying markets.

In today's economy, publications are also being folded, merged, turned into digital-only pubs and renamed faster than I can keep track. So clearly, if you're trolling for new publications to pitch, you should think beyond The Writer's Market.

by Alyssa Ast

Recently, the WM Freelance Writer's Connection was granted the opportunity to interview 'EXIT' author, Liliana Badd. Thank you to Liliana Badd for granting us this opportunity.

About the Book
When you compare the facts of Liliana Badd’s life of exile from one to the next to that of her nearly autobiographical heroine’s, her novel’s title, Exit, can also equal exile, but all-knowing, benevolent exits/exiles. Exit is the story of a woman’s metamorphosis; finding her true self by surviving illness after having been the perfect wife and mother.

Taking the reader on a journey through the life of this woman possessed rather than loved by her husband, exploring the complex relationships between children and parents and the collapsing of a life devastated by depression, we learn the intimate details and profoundness of a woman’s soul.

Faced with profound questions about life and death, love and courage our heroine must contemplate her own fate. From Paris to Bucharest, Ms. Badd opens the door to historical events that change her characters and the world around them.

Exit is a symbol... we enter and cry and that is life; we cry and leave and that is death. We are not born equal... yet, there comes a moment in our lives when each one of us will have to face the EXIT. At that moment we become equal... and there will be one question for all of us, without exception: "What have you done with your life?"

Interview with Liliana Badd
WM: Since your main character is nearly autobiographical, did you develop a stronger relationship with her than the other characters in you novel? How so?
LB:In spite of a first impression, EXIT is not an autobiographical novel. Ondine’s story could be any woman’s biography. EXIT is the story of a lover, a wife, a mother. Ondine is a fictitious character, acquiring true-to-life substance as the story develops. Ondine becomes "real" through her own metamorphosis as imposed by her diagnosed leukemia. As she states it: "The conclusion? What conclusion? I don't know. I don't know if there is any conclusion.... There were phases in my life, like in any woman's life, certainly, there was my metamorphosis in doubts, and my transition from the passionate, selfish lover — the age of irresponsibility, yes, white jury, from the age of irresponsibility to the married woman — the age of adjustment, and then, to the mother — the age of painful liability. A woman's heart is so intricate, full of mystery; a wife is the earth itself, ever changing, bearing scars." (EXIT page 147)

Ondine comes from the Latin "onda" – a wave. Her life flows as smoothly as a wave in a peaceful ocean, and then brutally it becomes a drop in a tormented ocean. Everything turns upside down in Ondine’s life when she is diagnosed with leukemia.

EXIT is a landmark in my life. It took me three years to achieve it. For three years, I lived as secluded as in a convent. Thinking and living with the characters, in a parallel world. My mind was asking them questions, they seemed to talk in their own voices, and my mind was listening to their stories, imagining we were on a huge theatrical set. They were the narrators, I was the director, and the audience was the world. The story enclosed me with these characters and with them only. I identified myself with my characters to such an extent, that I seem to have managed to reach a degree of authenticity imbuing EXIT with the feeling of an autobiography. The other characters are as alive as Ondine, and I have not developed a stronger relationship with any of them. They exist by themselves and I exist through them. Some friends of my parents after having read EXIT as a manuscript, and who knew me as a child wrote: "We thought it over and over again, and we do not remember you having had any brothers...When did you go to South America?" Another friend asked me: "Did you really go to a brothel and meet Solange?

I have never been diagnosed with cancer, and at moments I wonder; if I were to be Ondine - would I have her courage? I simply ignore it. I do not know what I would do if I were to be diagnosed with cancer. All I can say is that I admire Ondine and her courage.

WM: Were many of the life lessons your main character learned about herself similar to those you have experienced throughout your life or were they individual to the character? In what way?
LB: The life lessons Ondine learns about her inner self and about life are individual to herself and only to herself, although those lessons could be anyone’s lessons. I still wonder how her story came to my mind. I was aware that writing about someone being diagnosed with an incurable illness was a daring challenge. There are too many stories about this subject... and I accepted the challenge.

In 2006, while on a vacation in Europe, due to an unexpected health incident, I had to be hospitalised and had plasma transfusions. It was that year that Ondine’s story started germinating in my mind. The more I was thinking about this frustrated middle-aged woman, settled in her bourgeois Parisian life, feeling she failed her life, the more excited I was becoming. The story started shaping itself; Ondine started to exist. I was well advanced in my writing when I experienced a series of flu-like events, with profuse sweats, day and night, extreme fatigue and sometimes, intense malaise. All at once, I became aware that those symptoms were similar to Ondine’s symptoms. Almost hating her, I abandoned her altogether. I was not going to write a story, which strangely could be mine. I kept fighting my symptoms, fearing I might have been contaminated with HIV. I lived in anxiety and fear for long months. And one day, my symptoms went away. It was only then that I had the courage to go and get tested. The test came back negative. I started feeling well again, exuberantly, filled with energy. My energy was coming back. And so was Ondine.

And I also had a two-month writer’s block with EXIT, about fifty pages before the ending. The story was there, embedded in my mind, and not a word would come out. It almost shoved me in a depression... It seemed to me that I would never be able to finish it. My writer’s block began after I finished a very difficult passage dealing with Death. I felt as if I was teasing Death and Death was by my shoulder, grinning at me, laughing at me. At those moments, I felt Death as if it were a physical presence, watching me. I stopped writing for two months, and did all kinds of crazy things that I would have never done otherwise... and then, one day, the urge of writing came back... naturally, without any effort.

WM: What inspired you to write such an empowering novel?
LB: The events of life were my inspiration. The awareness that we truly exist if we relate to life globally, forgetting our individual ego.

EXIT is the story of someone’s fulfilling her dearest dream. Ondine has dreamt all her life of becoming a writer... and has never had the experience such a divine responsibility requires. "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." (H.D. Thoreau). It is the illness that will spectacularly open for her the door to her dream – shoving her into the cruel reality of life. Awakening.

Ondine has lived her life in a "sanitised" environment, as in a tiny eggshell, selfishly ignoring the matters of the world. Turned upside down, Ondine gestates in an overwhelming and morbid depression, questioning her marriage, her family, her career and her treatment. She begins to contemplate an easier road... suicide.

After her awakening – aided by the compassionate Dr. Monique Veil – she becomes a friend with a prostitute with AIDS and a Russian painter with whom she begins a passionate affair. When an independent newspaper publishes the photos Ondine had taken of her prostitute friend on her deathbed, her life begins an unexpected spiral in a new direction.

Later in life, Ondine returns to Paris, meditating on her life after her illness and how she has affronted death, stirring controversy and passion, understanding that "to live is to change." Does Ondine have enough time left in life on the edge of non-life? A surprise unexpected twist will leave readers shocked at the end of Ondine’s story.

Ondine says: "Since my illness, I have had some real challenges. I perceive the rigorous succession of circumstances. I trespassed across the borders of my former life; I crossed the seas, left cities behind me, followed the course of rivers or plunged into the desert, always making my way toward other cities; I affronted death... I allowed other men to touch my body; I met men and women and listened to their stories; I stirred controversy and passions; and all that led me – where? To understand that to live is to be marked, to see life in the present tense. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story and this is the only celebration, we, mortals really know. The words of a story. Still doubting...‘Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.’" (E.A. Poe)

WM: Do you feel your novel is capable of helping others due to the main character’s deep self reflection?
LB: Ondine’s experiences may help readers in finding some answers. Should it be only one answer: Never give up. As long as we are alive, there is always hope. Women and men, alike, will relate to Ondine’s story at some point or another. I will give you an example. It is the most rewarding experience a writer may hope to live. A couple of days ago, I met, here in Las Vegas, a doctor - who spends his life taking care of children without healthcare benefits within a program called "clinics in schools." He has given up a successful private medical practice to serve the cause of poor children and their families... Well, he incarnates my character Doctor Christophe Duquesne, in the novel. And I told him: "What a blessing for an author to meet in real life one of her fictitious characters."

The novel is dedicated to a renowned oncologist in Las Vegas. Her passion, her devotion to her patients, her vision "the patient always comes first; all else is secondary," having been the human inspiration for Dr. Veil’s character in the novel.

The stories published in Ondine’s works as a social photographer are all true-to-life: the children born with AIDS in Romania, innocent victims of a demented dictatorship, the immigration slum in the outskirts of Paris, the story of the young woman abducted for organ trafficking. These true-to-life stories make EXIT, as you say, "an empowering novel."


When EXIT was finished – I understood the secret of the SECRET. Exit is a symbol... we enter and cry, and that is life; we cry and leave and that is death. We are not born equal... yet, there comes a moment in our lives when each one of us will have to face the EXIT. At that moment we become equal... and there will be one question for all of us, without exception: "What have you done with your life?" I do not want to have to answer, "What a fearful thing is to reach the end of life and think I have noting to account for except a thin veil of confused images signifying nothing but wasted opportunities." (EXIT, page 263).

WM: What advice can you offer those that consider sharing a story about their life in this manner?
LB: EXIT made me understand that as a writer, I am not allowed to hold back anything from my readers; should this be painful or embarrassing... I have to deliver to my readers the whole truth about my soul and mind. I am not ashamed to state that my life has been like a roller coaster: a succession of failures followed by success... and then back to failure...and back to success. And this frankness has imbued the novel with authenticity. I exist as a human person in all the characters... EXIT is the radiography of my soul and mind.

Do not fear to say: I have failed. Failure is as normal as success; the power lying in the balance: we are our injuries as we are our successes.

About the Author
A rambling soul, a restless mind.

Liliana Badd graduated from the University of Germanic Languages in Bucharest. For twenty years, she was a professor of English literature and linguistics in France. Since 2000, she has been living in Las Vegas, Nevada. Exit is her second novel.

for The Practical Freelance Writer's Guide to Author Websites eBook

As I go along this freelance-writing road, and see the troubles of many low-earning freelancers, I've come to believe there are two key words that can really make a difference in your writing career.

Feeling empowered to use these words helps you earn more. High-earning freelance writers use them more than low-earning ones do, in my experience.

What are these words?

Why these two? Here are my reasons for choosing these as the two most important words for freelancers.

No. In the mind-boggling world of today's freelance writing, there are umpteen opportunities to earn a pittance. You can hardly turn on your computer without being offered a chance to earn $5 an article, or $100 per 65,000-word e-book. Not to mention all the opportunities to write for free for the exposure.

I actually got an inquiry from a company in Dubai this week -- no joke -- asking if I would submit "my best rates please!" to write company profiles for them. You can imagine the pay level the winner of this contest is going to receive.

Writers who can't turn a client away, no matter how wretched their pay or how onerous their workload, always end up earning less in the end. It's a self-confidence issue: You have to believe you can walk away from scut-pay gigs and keep looking, because a better gig is out there.

If you've been busy grinding out cheap articles because you think there's nothing else out there, you may not be aware that economists believe the recession officially ended more than a year ago. Obviously, it's not 2007 again, but we're definitely on the way back up. From my own experience, there is a ton of good-paying copywriting work out there as companies ramp up their marketing. And despite popular rumor of their demise, magazines continue to be a major market.

If you want to earn more, start saying no. Start raising your rates. Make a commitment to market your writing services more aggressively. It will pay off. That "no" can start you down the path to better earnings.

Know that you are not a helpless leaf on the river of your writing career. You can be a pilot in a boat instead, steering a course. For instance, All Freelance Writing's Chris Bibey felt like he wanted some better clients recently -- so he sent 500 direct-mail postcards to prospects and landed several ongoing, lucrative new accounts.

Why. Here's a question I worry that many writers don't ask often enough. Not of interview sources -- that's usually covered -- but of themselves. When you take a writing gig, why are you taking it? How does it fit into your plan for your writing career?

Particularly since the economy went down, there's a lot of writers simply grabbing any old writing job because they found it and it's there. But high-earning writers evaluate prospective gigs in the light of their own long-term goals, whether it's writing for major magazines, being a book author, joining a newspaper's investigative team, being a six-figure copywriter, or just to make an easy side income while raising young kids.

When you get a job offer, ask yourself why you should take it. Does it fit into your plan? Does it lie along the path you're trying to go down in your writing career? If not, then think twice.

As a busy writer who's been at this a long while, I can tell you the time really flies when you've got a stack of assignments. You think you're just taking this gig to tide you over for a month or two...but you'll look up and it'll be five or ten years from now, in a blink. Without a "why" -- and a game plan for getting where you want to go -- you may well still be doing the same type of writing and getting similar pay, years from now.

If your "why" is that you simply need this money right now, that's cool. But try to take a breath and look at your big picture now and then. If you take a smattering of different types of assignments, it tends to not propel you forward, where if you specialize and head in a direction, it's easier to move up the chain to better pay.

What's your writing "why"? Said "no" to a prospective client lately? Leave a comment and let us know.

by Alyssa Ast

Author of A Parent's Guide to Facebook, Kathryn Rose, granted the WM Freelance Connection the opportunity to interview her about her newly released book and her marketing experience. Kathryn Rose is not only an author, but a marketing strategist as well.

Facebook may be on another planet as far as you’re concerned, but A PARENT'S GUIDE TO FACEBOOK takes parents by the hand through set up, privacy settings, etc. and gives an understanding of the language and etiquette of Facebook.

This guide provides the tools and confidence to join the social conversation, help your children stay safe, and connect with other parents for fun and parenting support.

Interview with Kathryn Rose

WM: As social networking sites become such a large aspect of every day life, your book, A Parents Guide to Facebook, allows parents to understand these sites to keep children safe while online. Why do you feel empowered to share this valuable information?

KR:While researching for a business book on Facebook, I was testing some of the privacy settings and realized that many of my friends and families profiles were exposed. Their family pictures, their "wall" posts and much more were visible to the entire Facebook world, which, is over 500 million people! I decided that, as parents, and "digital immigrants" we needed to be armed with the knowledge that can help us enjoy Facebook but also use it safely.

WM: You encourage parents to learn the ropes involved with the online world to keep up with the influx of technology. While you do discuss how to keep children safe, how do you inform parents about the highlights and pleasures associated with using Facebook?

KR:I love Facebook and while the book focuses on some of the negative aspects of utilizing social networking sites such as Facebook, it also highlights the wonders of it as well. I couldn't imagine 4 years ago, that one of my closest childhood friends who moved away when I was 7 could find me and now I can connect with her, or my 86 year old great uncle friending me and being able to share pictures of his great-great grandchild. I

WM: As a social media strategist, you have a firm understanding about how networking sites, such as Facebook, function. With this understanding, how do you use this knowledge to assist parents with staying involved with their children's networking profiles?

KR:I utilize it in an opposite fashion in a sense. As a strategist, I teach my clients how to seek out their target audiences on social networks, the same strategies can be used by stalkers and pedophiles to find their victims. This is why it was so important for me to inform and educate parents, and children as well.

WM: Over the last couple of weeks, we have been discussing self publishing methods with our readers. While there remains much skepticism about the success of self publishing we encourage it. You chose to self publish. With your marketing experience, do you feel your choice to self publish has resulted in your favor? What tips do you have to share with those interested in self publishing?

KR:Well I love the fact that I can self publish. If I had waited for a publisher, this book would not have been written. As a matter of fact, right after releasing the first version of this book, a major publishing house decided it was a good idea and are going to publish their own version. Mine will be out first and hopefully I will be able to make a splash with mine before theirs comes out. The biggest advantage I have in self publishing is that I am a social media and search optimization strategist. I know how to get the word out and utilize the online networks to my advantage. I actually teach authors this as well and I have a new book coming out that will give authors all the tools they need to market their work online whether it be self publishing or traditional publishing.

WM: Social networking is used for marketing ourselves as writers. What have you found to be the most effective social marketing tool? Why?

KR: I have found Facebook and Twitter to be the two best tools. It is easy to find and "strategically" friend and follow influencers who can carry your message to the masses.

About the Author
Kathryn Rose is a Certified Social Media Strategist and Trainer, specializing in integration of new technologies in marketing strategies, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Mobile Marketing and Social Media development and training to help clients maximize their visibility online. A featured speaker on New Technology Marketing at the Real Estate University, Ladies Who Launch, Loan Officer Magazine, and the International Social Media Association.