ESSAYS - WRITING AND SELLING THEM

It’s frequently quoted that you can’t make a living writing essays – and this may well be true. 
 But  essays are a wonderful addition to your writing arsenal, and the more mature you are, the more you have to write about..

As the years have gone by I have written more and more essays for various publications and with practice they have become easier to write and almost all have been published ,( the ones that don’t usually end up on my other blog)

I’m not going to give definitions / directions / hints and tips about writing because so many other people have written about essay writing far better than I can,  so I’m giving some links below  to a variety of articles on the subject .

Five ways to develop your essays

A check list before you send your work out

ALittle Slice of Life  A writer’s success story with her first essay

Show Your Personal Side

Now once, you’ve picked your topic and written the essay, where are you going to send it?

Below are links to guidelines of  a number of online and print publications that publish essays .

I suggest that you take the time to read some of the essays that they have already published to get some idea of what they are interested in and the style they prefer.

Most essays are between 700 – 1000 words with the preferred number being  usually 800 – 900 but always check the guidelines.

Some of the below markets have both online and print publications and some only pay for one version. If you want to get paid check carefully what the current rates are.

C.S. MONITOR

Although the CS in the  title is Christian Science, this is an online newspaper with  a very tenuous connection to religion. They like essays connected to travel, nature and parenting.

Here are some essays they have recently published in the Home Forum section

The Imperfect Parent

Sasee – essays on topics of interest to women

Brainchild – The Magazine for thinking mothers

Chicken Soup stories – current needs for various upcoming books

Underwired – women’s stories

Skirt – essays for and about women monthly essays are according to themes

Skirt’s 2011 theme list

Guideposts – stories to inspire

Family Tree – Genealogy Magazine – they have one essay  column called  Everything’s Relative

JEWISH PUBLICATIONS AND WEBSITES

Aish Hatorah  -  show Jewish wisdom in a positive manner

   Mishpacha weekly magazine with separate supplements for women and children

Ami  -  weekly Magazine with separate supplements for women and tweenagers

Here is a market analysis I wrote a few months ago.

With so much choice what are you waiting for?

Writing for Jewish Religious Publications and Publishers

If you’re interested in writing for the Jewish  religious market then make a note to attend next year’s  Annual  Jerusalem Writers’ Seminar.

In one day we  heard from  book publishers, magazine and newspaper editors and a myriad of women successful in various writing- related  professions that suit religious women writers.

BOOK PUBLISHING

Representatives from the main religious publishing houses spoke about their needs and the type of manuscripts they are looking for.  Some topics are always popular e.g. cookbooks / inspiration / short stories/ humor but all the editors said they would happy to look at manuscripts that  were ‘out of the box’  and are always on the look out for new ideas.

Click on the names below to reach the publishers’ websites. Browse around and look at the kind of titles they publish to get a feel for what  they are interested in. Some have author's guidelines on the site- if there aren't any, request some by email.

Israel Bookshop Publications    

Brand Name Publishing  

Feldheim   

Artscroll   

Judaica Press   

Shanky      

Jewish E-books (Hebrew site)       English site should be running soon

MAGAZINES

There is an ever increasing number of high quality, weekly magazines for the orthodox reader:

One editor described her publication as a voracious animal desperate to be fed week after week, and she was always extremely happy to get pitches, fiction  and essays from writers. Although  they may have a small stable of  regular writers, all the editors agreed that there is a constant need for  material and they  welcome high quality  work from all writers whether experienced or newcomers.

Pitches for  articles and stories related to the Chagim (Festivals) should be sent 3 months in advance.

Mishpacha has three sections every week:

 A family magazine, a women’s section (Family First) and a children’s paper. Pitches, essays and fiction for Mishpacha should be sent to submissions@Mishpacha.com  and for Family First to the editor; Bassi@Mishpacha.com.

 At Pesach and Sukkot there are numerous extra supplements for teens / fiction/ literary etc which provide a wonderful opportunity for fiction writers.

 Ami  magazine is the newest pub. having started out only just over 6 months ago. It also consists of three sections every week : The general family magazine, women's section and teenagers' magazine.

.At the moment, it is only distributed in the USA  so many potential writers have never seen a copy. It seems to be very similar to Mishpacha and the editor encourages writers to submit pitches, essays and stories to  Submissions@amimagazine.org

 Binah is a weekly women’s magazine with a separate section for children and numerous extra supplements for Pesach and Sukkot.

They have no website  but pitches and essays should be sent  to submissions@binahmagazine.com.

Hamodia newspaper has a weekend edition with multiple sections including a weekend magazine with sections for women and children. 

Hamodia and Binah work closely together and if an article, essay or children’s piece is unsuitable for one, the editor will  probably pass it over to the other publication, so check before resending it yourself.
Queries for Hamodia to submissions@Hamodia.com or chaviernster@yahoo.com.

You don’t have to be religious to write for the religious  market – but it does help if you have some idea of the  needs and limitations of the market.

Manuscripts, both book and magazine, are always approved  by a Rabbinical advisory board and although editors will always help a good writer iron out  the wrinkles, if there are too many it won’t be worth the effort as nothing of substance will be left.

 The religious market  is a rapidly growing section of the publishing world and there’s no longer any need for a writer who only writes for religious publications to feel there’s no market for her work.