Re: Great Fear -- (ummmm, make that "Holy Terror") --

> I would love to jump in headfirst, but I don't see how I can compete. By
> just plopping up my own web site and mentioning it here and there, I
> should be able to pick up some proofreading and editing...

Well, you can do that. And posting that you have sold some writing can ALSO add to this site/those saleable skills.

> but it scares the bemeekers out of me to jump in somewhere like elance and
> start bidding on jobs. (Remember, I can't afford to throw my time away at
> this point -- a situation of my own stupid making.)

Don't waste your time with Elance. I didn't/wouldn't.

Let me give you a *concrete* example, okay? I just googled for "writers gudelines pays" and came up with this one:
http://www.bylinemag.com/guidelines.asp

Scan on down the page. Aha. There's something that I can do: "Departments - Read the magazine for examples. First $ale carries 250-300 word accounts of a writer's first sale. Payment is $20 on acceptance. Writing-related humor of 50-400 words needed for Only When I Laugh. Pays $15 to $25 on acceptance. Great American Bookstores! features outstanding independent bookstores in 500-600 words. Stores should be unique in some way and also promote writers. No chains, children's only, or used bookstores. Pay is $30, or $40 with one good photo."

I could write about my first sale (man, that was scary!) or I could write about my daughter and the time her paper got held by a teacher for plagarism because she wrote TOO well and I had to go explain that she learned it from me (humor) or I could write about a great little bookstore that I know that offers signings for authors. Notice that the last one is only 500 words and pays $40.

So I go interview the bookseller that I know, write them up, get a photo of them with a book, and send it in. I check the web page for further instructions -- can't submit by email and they have a link to proper manuscript format. I make sure that my word count is exactly where it should be (200 words is too few, 450 words is fine, 520 can be gotten away with, but 600 will be rejected) and I doublecheck to see how they want the manuscript formatted. Then I print it. Then I print a cover letter:

The cover letter says:

===================
My name
My address
Date

Dear editors,

I saw your listing on your web page, http://www.bylinemag.com/guidelines.asp and would like to submit the enclosed file for consideration for the "Booksellers" column. Should it not meet your needs, please return it. I have enclosed a SASE for your convenience.

Sincerely

Mel. White

my email@ address
===========================

Enclose manuscript, enclose self addressed stamped envelope.

Yeah, it's terrifying but you have to realize that manuscripts most often get rejected because "it's just not what we need right now." Doesn't mean it's bad or unsaleable. After all, you don't buy 8 pounds of chocolate every time you go to the grocery store, right? If you're not buying chocolate, it doesn't mean that it's horrible or should be banned from the face of the earth or the company should be burned and everyone involved with it should be kicked in the knee. It simply means that chocolate doesn't 'fit the bill' for your needs and your budget right now.

Same with manuscripts. There might be nothing wrong but they might have bought all the columns they need for the next year and no matter how much they love you, they already sent all that money to the other writers and have done the layout.

This is why you send out 5 manuscripts a week and resend the ones that come back. If you send out just one, you'll get the willies about it and the first time it comes back you'll throw away your word processor and eat an entire Chocolate Overkill dessert all by yourself.

That, and it takes about 3 weeks to hear back from a really prompt editor. Average time between ship out and hear back from is about a month to six weeks. You can't lurk at the mailbox all that time. You go on living and you go on submitting.

Then one day, that magical hit will come back. It'll be in the SASE and you'll think "oh dear. It came back." And when you open it to resend it you find instead a nice letter from an adorable editor who has so thoughtfully sent you a check.

There ain't nothin' so fine as an acceptance letter (well, maybe sex and chocolate and grandchildren and children and so forth, but it's pretty darn hard to beat!)

> Is it this scary to submit your articles to magazines?

Heck yeah. But 'scary' never stopped me. It didn't stop you from standing up to some of the scumbeezles, right?

> Are your
> "credentials" competing with overwhelmingly impressive
> "credentials" --

Nope. Unless I'm trying to get into a hugely paying market, I don't mention the credentials. For any piece that they'll give $50 or under for, I don't bother with credentials. I do when I'm submitting a story to an anthology or if I get around to resubmitting that novel (but it needs to be agented and that's a whole nother story and do NOT try to do novels just yet, okay?)

> or do your articles speak for themselves, regardless of how much of a
> "nobody" you are?

Yup. Folks may know me here, but I can guaraaaaaaaaanteee youse that they don't know me elsewhere. It's been 20 years since my last short story was published, and that don't cut any mustard, either.