New Writers - An Easy Way to Get Published Right Away

Beginning writers tend to stress out over all the different things they’ve been taught about writing for publication. How do I even begin to write a query letter? Who do I send it to? Do I even need one? How can I sell my article idea in a query letter when I haven’t written it yet? And what about clips? What in heaven’s name are they? I don’t have any, so what do I do? By this point, most beginners are tearing their hair out—and for good reason.

There is one way you can begin earning money as a published writer right away and you won’t need to write a query letter to do it. Lots of magazines need fillers—short articles, jokes, quizzes, etc,—and greeting card companies need short verses and clever sayings to fill their cards and warm consumers’ hearts. You can get paid to write them, plus you’ll have clips to send out in the future to other magazines as evidence of having been published.

Which magazines need fillers? Well, Reader’s Digest is a leading publication that pays from $100 to $300 for funny true stories. They’re used in "Life in these United States," "All in a Day’s Work" and "Humor in Uniform." They also use jokes, quotes, and other material in "Laughter, the Best Medicine," "Quotable Quotes," and elsewhere in the magazine. And some of these fillers don’t even have to be original. You can send funny items from other published sources.

Go to www.rd.com/joke to submit original material, and check the magazine for how to send items clipped from other sources. You might find a really funny short piece in your local newspaper that would be suitable for Reader’s Digest. And flip through other popular magazines to see what types of fillers they use, and then submit your own.

By the way, this opportunity isn’t open only to beginning writers. Experienced writers can, and do, regularly earn easy, extra income by writing fillers.