MONEY FOR FILLERS

There are many days when I don’t have the time to write much.,

But there’s one thing I can almost always manage and that’s sending a letter to the editor  a household tip, a funny incident or  a cute photo.

Keep a notebook for all ideas for letters that occur to you / kitchen short-cuts you always do without thinking / fun things children say.

You can always ask your friends for a good household tips as well.

These items are often  known as fillers and many publications use them.

 One of the most famous publications for humorous  fillers is Readers Digest. Read a copy to get some of ideas of the topics they cover but they are mostly funny incidents that happen  at work / in the army  / jokes  / odd photos etc.

 They pay $100 but the competition is fierce. You can submit your entries here 

There are also many British magazines which pay money for letters to the editor / opinions/ money saving ideas / cute things your children say etc. etc. Pay varies  usually from about   £10 – £100 and if you think of it as pay per word it’s well worth it.

They also pay well for  cute pictures of children – they don’t have to be your own they can be children / grandchildren / nieces/ nephews .or your neighbor’s. Occasionally a publication will ask for the parents letter of  permission if  you say the photos isn’t of your own child.

I recently received  £100 ( that’s about  $160) for a picture of one of my grandchildren , sitting in a field of flowers. Now I know she’s  absolutely gorgeous  but  it’s nice that the magazine also thinks so.

Many of the magazines that take these kind of letters / tips / photos are the weekly tabloid types full or lurid, grizzly stories  .They are very  popular and  are  published every week and therefore need a lot of material and so it’s not that difficult to get published in them .

I  rarely see actual copies of the magazine,  but although some of their requirements may change slightly, they almost always publish photos of children  and  tips in some form or another.

In order to keep up to date with fillers  I  subscribe to Freelance  Market News (FMN) which always has a page of filler markets, as well as many pages of general writing  markets and writing tips.

Two things you need to check 

1. That the letter pages aren’t full of comments about articles from the previous issues of the  magazine. Obviously, if this is their policy, you’re just wasting your time if you try and send them a letter about your daughter’s cute comment .  FMN does warn you if the letters are all about previous articles.

2. They don't pay in prizes that you won't be able to have sent out of the UK . I usually only write for magazines that pay in money.

Here are a few magazines to start you off.

TAKE A BREAK

Photos of children / pets./ travel  £100              email: tab.street@bauer.co.uk

Tips  £30  tips with photo of tip in action £60   email: tab.brainwaves@bauer.co.uk

PICK ME UP  

Tips with photo £25

Send through their website and see other tips ( only those in the printed mag are paid for) http://www.pickmeupmagazine.co.uk/tip_offs

FULL HOUSE

Tips   £25  submit at website http://www.fullhousemagazine.co.uk/cleverclogs.php

BEST

Letters   £50 for star letter   £25 for others    best@natmags.co.uk

WOMAN’S WEEKLY

Letters and tips   £10       womansweeklypostbag@ipc.media.com

MY WEEKLY

Letters ( must be accompanied by a photo) £25   myweekly@dcthomson.co.uk

GOOD LUCK