Linda Sherwood

How to use clips

By Linda Sherwood
www.lindasherwood.com
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Clips are copies of your published work "clipped" from the newspaper or magazine. You need to get clips to get published and you can't get published until you have clips. It's a vicious cycle. That's why many beginning writers are willing to write for free.

Some clips are more valuable than others, based on the publication's reputation. When evaluating the value of your clip, consider the editorial process it went though. If it was your friend's web site, and no one edited anything, it's not a very valuable clip. If it's from a national magazine, it went through several layers of editing, making it valuable as a clip. In general, a clip from a daily newspaper is more valuable than a clip from an unknown online publication. As you get more clips, weed through and keep the best ones.

No mater how prestigious the publication, "Letters to the editor" aren't clips! Even if that's all you have, don't use them!

Once you have clips, you want to present them in a way that is neat and clean that you can share with editors. Clips don't always cooperate. When published, some clips snake around ads and just look really bad. Editors don't care about the ads, but if you cut them out you end up with a long skinny article.

What I do is cut the article out, lay it out neatly on a clean 8x11 sheet of paper. Often, I'll reduce the publication's tombstone (their nameplate on the front cover) and place it along the top of the blank page. I'll then lay my article out underneath it in column format using rubber cement to hold it all in place.

Once the article looks nice, I'll note the day it was published and the page it appeared on. You can do this by pasting the folio line (the line on every page giving the page number and date and publication's name) or by just neatly printing it on the page. I store my clips in a three-ring binder. Each clip is slid into a plastic sleeve inside the binder. I place the original in front, and store extra copies behind the original.

When I need to send a clip, I flip through my portfolio and pull out copies of clips I need. I try to send clips that are relevant to the article I'm pitching. For instance, a query about a parenting topic includes two parenting clips. A query about health includes health clips, and so on.

When is Free OK?

By Linda Sherwood
www.lindasherwood.com

The important thing to remember when deciding whether or not to write for free is that the writer should always receive something for their writing, and that something doesn't always have to be cash or check. A writer can write to get clips, or to break into a new genre or to promote a book or to have their story told. A free column in the local paper might give you the deadline you needed to motivate you to write. All of these are benefits, or payments, for the writer.

You need to take your experiences and go that next step and stretch your horizons. Once you gain something, move on.

For example, I started writing for newspapers. I have a very solid background writing for newspapers. I felt very comfortable writing nonbiased articles after interviewing experts about topics that had nothing to do with me. Then I decided to freelance. I started researching the markets.

All of the articles I read in the magazines I wanted to pitch started out saying, "I was" or "My daughter and I." But "I" is the forbidden pronoun in journalism! Could I do this? Could I make the switch? Well, I found an online market and I sent a query. It was accepted within 15 minutes.

I interviewed about eight people for the article including several long-distance phone interviews to experts. When I was done, I turned in a 1500-word article that I had probably put eight hours or more into. I proudly cashed my check for $25. And I never wrote a researched article for $25 again.

I needed that chance to build up my confidence. To let myself know, that yes, I can write an article with experts and include the personal pronoun. Once the article was written, and accepted, I'd learned my lesson. I moved onto better paying markets. You can too!