Class 17 - Getting to know the market

Welcome Back

In this session, we’re going to start thinking about the creative nonfiction market. As a creative nonfiction writer, there are literally thousands of places that you can publish in. The challenge isn’t the lack of places, it is finding the right place. And individual writers will over time build up a set of connections with places where they feel their work is welcomed.

So today is going to be largely exploratory. You are going to do some research, and share this with the rest of the group. We’re going to look at commercial markets for nonfiction writing, and I’m going to assume that you want to be paid for your hard work.

Pitching vs. Sending Final Pieces

For much nonfiction, you will not be writing something and then sending the finished piece out into the world. You will be pitching your work. We’ll talk much more about pitching next time. But a pitch is effectively a short communication that you send to an editor (usually as an email), telling them who you are, and offering to write a piece for their publication. If the editor says, “Hey, this writer, and their proposal sound great,” they will sign a contract with you, and you can start writing.

Pitching is great, because it saves time — you don’t have to write 10,000 words and find nobody wants it. This makes it a good way of efficiently match-making between writers and publishers.

Some more literary magazines and journals may ask for full manuscripts. But for many outlets, and all journalistic outlets, you will pitch first.

Initial research

Have a look at WhoPaysWriters.com. It’s an interesting website! It collates anonymous reports telling readers where people have sent their work to (or pitched their work to). I’ll show you round the site.

The headings are linked, so you can go to the publications.

Your task in the next 30 minutes is to do this:

1. Spend some time researching WhoPaysWriters — just explore the site and see what looks interesting.
2. Click through to any publications you like the look of.
3. Look around the publication websites, and see what kind of things they publish.
4. If you are interested in a publication, see if they have any submissions guidelines (these may be called “Write for Us”, or “Submissions Guidelines” or “Pitch to Us”). Read through their guidelines.
5. Back on WhoPaysWriters, check the rates that are reported for this publication. Are people happy writing for them? Do they pay on time? Do they pay well?

By the end of the 30 minutes, try and find two publications that you might one day want to pitch to.

If you want to look beyond WhoPaysWriters, you can, but you won’t have the advantage of knowing rates of pay!

Breakout Groups

Now, in breakout groups, share your publications. Introduce them, and talk about:

1. Why you are interested in the publication
2. Why you think they might be a good fit for your work
3. How to pitch to them
4. What concerns or questions you have about them?

We’ll come back at the end for a Q&A session!

Next time

Next time, we have Vicky MacKenzie coming to talk about the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction. So your homework is to read her strange, unsettling piece, Dark Harvest — which straddles the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction — and to upload a couple of questions for Vicky!

Next Monday, our class will be at 8pm ICT! If you can’t make it, we’ll record it.