For much of my writing life, I kept my most insightful writing between the pages of my journals. I stopped myself from turning this treasure trove of potential into essays by asking myself the question, "Who would ever want to read this?" and answering it in the negative – "Nobody!"
A more realistic answer would have been "Somebody" or even "Plenty of people would."
Being awarded a $5,000 grant in Creative Nonfiction this year from the Colorado Arts Council based on a series of essays that began as journal writing, brought that lesson home to me in a way I no longer can ignore.
The market for personal experience writing is growing. Finding the right market for your work requires more than buying Writer’s Market and letting it gather dust on your bookshelf. There’s an audience for more of your writing than you might think. Finding that audience takes work. Sometimes it takes more work than polishing your rough notes into essays or articles. It also takes courage, but readers are out there and they are waiting to read your work. It’s up to you to find them.
Look for markets consistently. We writers often lament that our careers are either feast or famine. Rarely do we stop to think that the reason for these ups and downs is that we prospect for markets and approach them sporadically. Try to set aside a specific amount of time you will spend on market research each day or, if that isn’t possible, two or three times each week.
Dig deeply. Periodicals and magazine directories are the richest sources for markets, but they aren’t created for writers. Their intended audience is librarians, public relations people and advertisers. Find these resources at your local library or on the Internet.
Focus. As you read through these directories and surf magazine and newsletter databases online, concentrate on publications that are best bets for buying your work and ignore the rest. There’s no reason in the world that you need to accumulate leads to absolutely every hunting and fishing publication or every magazine Cultural Creatives, unless you’re compiling a directory.
Write it down. Buy an inexpensive spiral notebook or open a word processing document on your computer to keep a running log of log the results of your marketing research. Note information to follow up on later, even though may not be relevant to your current writing project. Create a section in your notebook or a separate word processing documents that contain the names of publications you want to target, contact information, rates of payment and how the editors want to be approached.
This week pull out your old journals or notes you’ve made for articles want to write. Pick one project on which to focus. Ask yourself is a voice that contains curiosity rather than disdain, "Why would anybody want to read this?" Now answer that question on paper. When you’ve finished, ask yourself. "Who would benefit from reading this?" Answer that on paper too. Finally ask yourself, "What types of magazines do they read and what websites do they visit?" Now start looking through Writer’s Market or go to the library and ask the librarian for help finding the periodical directories. When you’ve found potential markets, come home, polish that piece of writing and submit it.