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Publications to Query
by Katie Gustafsson

The Ailment: Recently a number of sites have closed down that were providing me with an income from my writing. Although I have never contacted an editor previously, do you have any ideas of other publications I could query about publishing my work?

The Cure: Go to mailing list providers such as Topica and Yahoo!Groups and search for "writing" or "freelance writing." There are a number of publications there that you can subscribe to free such as "writersweekly." Sign up to any of these that you think will provide you with information for the kind of writing you are interested in. These eZines are not usually interactive; they are a publication that is delivered to your in-box.

Do a second search for the kind of writing you do - for example horror fiction, or historical fiction, or travel writing, and see what other groups come up. By joining a couple of these, you may find other markets and advice from writers who write in your field. These groups allow networking between writers that can be invaluable.

A note on mailing lists - check how much mail they usually generate. EZines that are delivered via mailing lists are usually weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly - other mailing lists could have hundreds of messages per day so you may want to start off on digest so that you receive all the mail but it doesn't overflow your in-box.

If you want to continue writing for on-line publications, three books you should check out from the library are:

• Writer's Online Marketplace by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
• Writing.com by Moira Anderson Allen
• Online Markets for Writers by Anthony and Paul Tedesco

Copyright © 2001 Katie Gustafsson

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