Are you looking to get published in magazines? Or maybe you have some clips, and want to take your writing career to the next level. This is the place for you!

People Say...

Linda’s expertise, knowledge, and encouragement have helped me land assignments at Family Circle, Oxygen, Source, and Bankrate.com. Linda rocks! 

—Jennifer Lawler

Linda’s 8-Week E-course on Breaking into Magazines

My eight-week e-course on getting published in magazines will walk you through the publishing process, from coming up with a salable idea to writing a winning query letter. The premium course includes unlimited e-mail support, and both the premium and regular courses include a free packet of 12 successful query letters. Previous students have landed assignments from Woman’s Day, For Me, E: The Environmental Magazine, Michigan Out-Of-Doors, Pizza Today, MyBusiness, Cottage Living, and other magazines. Interested? Sign up now on the e-course page.

Phone Mentoring for Writers

So many people have asked me for phone mentoring that I’ve finally decided to offer this service. I determined that I want to help writers in a more personal way than I can through my 8-week e-course. I’ll be charging $125 per hour for phone mentoring, as well as for any e-mail follow-ups to a session, such as query critiquing. You can hire me for a one-time session or on a regular basis.

In just one session with Linda, I came away with renewed vigor and optimism after a period of stalling and self-doubt. Linda has a way of communicating that is open and fresh; her listening skills and ability to empathize and share her own stories are essential traits of a good mentor. I know who to call next time I need a helping hand!
—Sheryl Kraft

I can help writers with:

If you may be interested in setting up a phone mentoring session, please e-mail me.

Free Packet of 12 Successful Query Letters

Okay, here’s a secret: You don’t have to join the e-course to get your free packet of 12 successful query letters that earned the authors up to $3,750 per article. Just send a blank e-mail to queries@renegadewriter.com and the autoresponder will send you the queries.

E-Books for Writers

Linda Formichelli is the author of the e-book Editors Unleashed: Magazine Editors Growl About Their Writer Peeves. To get more info, visit Linda’s Other Books page.

The Renegade Writer

The Renegade Writer: A Totally Unconventional Guide to Freelance Writing Success (Second Edition: Marion Street Press, 2005) tells professional and aspiring magazine writers how to break in — and make more money — by breaking the rules. Publishers Weekly calls this irreverent, edgy book “upbeat and exceptionally informative.” The revised and updated second edition includes new rules to break, more quotes from editors, and interviews with successful Renegade Writers.
Order the book on Amazon.com

The Renegade Writer Blog

The Renegade Writer blog is where Diana Burrell and I post excerpts from our book, author news, interviews with renegade writers, writerly rants, and more.
Check out the blog.

The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock

This companion to The Renegade Writer employs Linda Formichelli’s and Diana Burrell’s signature sassy, convention-defying style and is a must-have for writers pitching all types of magazines. The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters that Rock (Marion Street Press, November 2006) offers a variety of actual query letters that garnered assignments from national magazines, complete with extensive comments on the letters from both the writers and from the editors who assigned the stories. Freelancers will learn what works with advice from editors at high-profile publications including Smithsonian, AARP: The Magazine, The LA Times Magazine, Fitness, Parenting, USA Weekend and mental_floss. The book also provides a Q & A section with answers to freelancers’ most common query questions.

Order the book on Amazon.com

Looking for E-Courses on Essay Writing or Other Topics?

Diana Burrell and I are now offering several great courses for writers through the Renegade Writer site, all taught by successful freelancers. Visit the site to learn about these courses:

• Food writing.
• Travel writing.
• Writing for trade magazines.
• Magazine writing basics.
• Writing for the women’s markets.
• Book proposals.

If you’re interested in essay writing, try this e-course offered by my writing buddy:

• Writing with Nature by Jena Ball

In this six-week course writers spend time in and writing about nature with a goal of becoming more comfortable with the writing process and fine tuning basic skills. Lessons will introduce the basics of writing an essay and cover techniques such as using the senses to collect details, creating compelling scenes, and developing your narrative voice. By the end of class you will have written a personal essay about the natural world and explored options for publication.

Review Copy Helper

To help magazines writers request press copies of books for their queries and articles, and to help writers get copies of books to review, I created the Review Copy Helper—a database of more than 200 publishers/imprints with info on how to request review copies from each one. I did all this for free because I love you! If you use the database and notice that any information is out of date, please let me know so I can update it.

Writing FAQ

I get tons of questions from writers. Here are some of the most common:

Q: I know I should interview sources for my query, but how do I get people to agree to talk to me when I don’t even have an assignment?

A: Great question! I generally ask potential sources to do very quick e-mail or phone interviews “just to get a few good quotes for the proposal,” and promise that I’ll be back in touch should I sell the idea. That way they don’t waste a lot of time answering your questions when there’s no guarantee of publicity.

I also post my requests for sources on ProfNet; the sources there tend to be media-savvy and they’re looking for publicity, so they may be more likely to grant you an interview for a query.

Q: Do I need to query essays?

A: Editors generally want to see your entire essay, so go ahead and send it in with a brief cover letter. The same goes for short pieces (say, under 300 words) and humor.

Q: What equipment and supplies do you think are necessary?

A: I have a laptop computer that I can bring to the bookstore, a printer, a fax machine (but not a dedicated fax line), cable modem, and a color copier (which saves a lot of time and trouble when it comes to copying clips and article backup materials). The copier was under $100 at Staples. I also have voicemail, so if a call comes in while I’m on the line, it automatically goes to voicemail.

I don’t have any extras on my phone (call waiting—what are you going to do, tell your editor or interviewee that someone more important is calling?), a transcription machine, a dedicated checking account or credit card, or accounting software. I don’t even have a second line for the fax anymore, as I get them so rarely now that editors send contacts via e-mail these days.

Q: Do you come up with ideas and then find markets for them, or find markets and brainstorm ideas for them?

A: Personally, I come up with ideas and then find markets for them. Other writers find markets they want to write for and brainstorm ideas for them. Both ways are valid.

Q: When do you finally give up on an article idea that keeps getting rejected?

A: I never give up on an article idea. If it’s rejected by Family Circle, I send it to Woman’s Day. If it’s rejected by all my top-tier magazines, I then start sending it to smaller markets.

I have some ideas that I wrote queries for a few years ago (which were never accepted anywhere), and every once in a while I dredge them up and send them to a new market I never tried before (maybe it’s a new magazine, or I just never thought to query it). How’s that for being wedded to an idea?

Q: How can I find other writers to talk to and brainstorm with?

I would suggest joining online forums such as Freelance Success (FLX). FLX costs about $90 per year, but it’s a more professional site than others I’ve visited. I recently met a few FLXers in person when I hosted a New England Writers Gathering at my home. You can go on there, introduce yourself, and ask if there are any other members in your area.

You could also look for or start a writing group at your local library or bookstore.

Q: As a beginning magazine writer, how can I gain more confidence in myself?

A: You can gain experience and clips by writing for trade magazines and smaller magazines while you also pitch the bigger target mags. Having those clips will boost your confidence immeasurably! Also, try not to be afraid of rejection. Even if you’re the best writer in the country, you will get rejections, and you have to let them roll off your back. I recently did a count, and 68% of my ideas have been rejected!

Q: How do you stay organized?

A: I have a huge binder that I call my “life book” — it has sections for ideas, query tracking, article tracking, medical stuff, computer stuff, gift ideas and a birthday calendar, a daily To-Do list, a phone log, and more.

I also have a giant 4-drawer filing cabinet that I use to file clips (I cut them out of the magazine along with the cover of the mag), contracts (in hanging folders labeled A through Z), article backup materials (you never know when the editor will ask to see them again — they always seem to lose them!), and articles and scraps of paper pertaining to article ideas (which I forget about and periodically dump into the trash).

Q: How long did it take you to earn a living freelancing?

A: I started in 1997, and I made enough in my first year to support my husband Eric and me (he was in college), but we were pretty poor. Things got better in 1998 and 1999, then 2000 was the best year I ever had. So I’d say it took three years to start earning enough to do all the things we wanted to (buy a house, buy a car, get insurance etc.).

Q: How do you keep track of your queries?

A: You’re going to laugh...I have a chart that I created in Microsoft Word that I print out and put in a binder. It has spaces for the name of the query, the name of the magazine, the date sent, follow-ups, and the result. Every once in a while I go through the chart and follow-up where needed. And if an idea has been rejected, I then think of who I can send it to next (so I don’t have a list of markets for my ideas). Every so often, I go through the chart and enter all the rejects into a Filemaker file and redo the chart with only the outstanding queries. It’s crazy and disorganized, but it’s mine and I like it.

Q: How do I move up the pay rate ladder?

A: I always find that when I turn down a low-paying assignment, it makes room for more lucrative work to flow in. It also gives you more time to query better-paying magazines. It’s scary to let go of a regular client, but if you want to keep moving up, you have to do it.

Q: Should I send out multiple queries or query one editor at a time?

A: When I started out and was doing multiple submissions, I was snail mailing my queries and it would take two to three months to hear back from editors. Since we’re now in the e-mail age and you’re likely to hear back much more quickly from editors, you need to decide whether it’s worth it to you to risk getting two acceptances on the same idea in order to avoid the wait. Also, if you’ve already worked with an editor before, or had previous contact with her (for example, if she rejected an idea but invited you to send more), or if she requested your query, you should give her an exclusive look at it.

Q: When I e-mail a query, should I attach my clips?

A: I wouldn’t attach the clips; a lot of times e-mails with attachments go straight to the editor’s spam folder (or so I hear). I usually send an e-mail with a brief letter (i.e., “Here’s the query you requested"), then paste the query below. I offer to e-mail clips if the editor wants to see them. (If she already requested them, I’d paste them into the e-mail under the query.