About this blog post: Each month, I send an email newsletter to friends on my list. Below is a condensed version of last month's letter.
I just wrapped two business articles this week, one of which is all about creating genuine partnerships with editors and the press. It's something that most artists, writers, and creators get better at over time, but it's often a mystifying process when we're first starting out. (I know I am still making my way in this area and learning stuff each time I pitch my products or articles.) I will of course link to the the finished piece here once it's published [Update: here's the link], but in the meantime, I'd like to share three resources that have been helpful to me:
The Craft Industry Alliance's Big List of Craft Magazine Submission Information
Skillshare Premium Class: How to Write a Killer Magazine Article Pitch
Mediabistro's AvantGuild membership
I hesitated sharing these because all three are paid services and available to members only. (You could probably snag the Skillshare class with a free trial.) But all three have been incredibly helpful to me, and I do feel as though the suggestions and resources they offer are invaluable. Do you have any go-to tips for reaching and working with editors and the press? I'd love to hear.
Here are some things I'm reading, thinking about, and working on this month:
What I'm Reading
So You've Written a Children's Book, Now What? by Chronicle Books, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan (still), The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis
What We're Reading
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner, my husband's childhood copy of Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
What I Wrote
Why You Should Take a Social Media Break, Part II on Dear Handmade Life, A Stay at Haviland House: An 1825 Landmark Home in Hudson for And North
What I Heard and Saw
Maira Kalman on Design Matters, Gabrielle Hamilton on The Moment, Elizabeth Gilbert on Longform, the beautiful capsule episode on Season 5 episode 6 of Girls, which is really hitting its stride, and Aurora's cover of Bowie's Life on Mars overheard on the same series
From the Archive
Five newsletters I'm really into right now. (And still, a few months later.)
