HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHAT TO WRITE? Some topics merely interest us, while others fascinate us. But is our interest enough to make those topics compelling to readers? How do we parse through what we know to choose what to share with others on the page? Am I capturing what’s on your mind? Good, then let me push it even further and ask you to consider not only what you plan to publish next, but where you plan to publish it. You need to consider this since knowing how to write for major publications will change your writing life.
What major publication would suit your work? The answer to this question should begin to tap into and reflect the game plan for your writing career. What is that game plan, and how soon do you want to make your move to sending your material out into the world? And in what form are you planning to send it? Have you got a book in mind, from which you hope to publish excerpts? Do you want to be a columnist for some large online site, newspaper, or newsletter? Do you want to publish that oh-so-coveted Modern Love column in The New York Times? Do you want all of those things to happen in this marvelous writing life you are building?
You can have them all, but you cannot have them unless you plan.
As someone who has published books with four of the big five publishers, I can tell you that those books were the culmination of plans, not the plan themselves. In other words, many things had to get written and published before those came to be on any bookstore shelf. And all of those books had a common denominator. What is it? I started with a smaller piece before I tried writing a book.
I think the ethic of starting small has gotten misplaced in this age of seemingly huge success by some writers. For inspiration, I look at authors like Rebekah Taussig, who built a successful writing career by starting on Instagram, doling out her tale, or Megan Falley, who sold books out of the back of a car before she became an award-winning storyteller. When I review their careers to date, I am reminded of the links on the chain one must build one at a time to get to the book one truly wants to write.
Let me give you some help here. Along the way to that book you plan to publish, begin to plan now to successfully publish in a major publication. Why? If you have not already done so, listen in to what Modern Love columnist Genevieve Kingston has to say about planning and publishing a Modern Love column and how it led to her getting a fine literary agent.
After that, I invite you to join a terrific new course on how to write for major publications. This is taught by Kyle Young, the Operations Manager here at The Memoir Project. Kyle, whose work has appeared in Forbes, The Harvard Business Review and other large, prestigious publications, has developed a course for you to learn how to get your work similarly published. Join him in Authority Generator: How to Write for Major Publications.
