Get Paid for Articles in Children's Magazines

It's official. I'm now a paid freelance writer. My first check for my writing comes from Focus on the Family for "It's a Dog's Job But Somebody's Gotta Do It" to be published in Clubhouse Jr. magazine. Pretty exciting! Although I started on this path hoping to publish a picture book—that will happen—I learned at last year's Mount Hermon Writers Conference that writing articles is a good place to start. And... let's be honest here. Will my picture book sell 65,000 copies? I wish! That's the circulation of Clubhouse Jr.

For those who write for children, I've listed the top magazine publishers. Click on the magazine name to see the writer's guidelines. Finding the guidelines for each magazine is a challenging exercise—they don't make it simple. All of these publications accept unsolicited freelance submissions, some up to 80%. The magazines marked with an asterisk (*) are Christian themed.

American Girl Girls 8 - 12, Circ. 600,000

Boys' Life Boys 8 - 18, Circ. 11 million (whoa!)

Boys' Quest Boys 5 - 14

Clubhouse* 8 - 12, Circ. 90,000

Clubhouse Jr* 4 - 8, Circ. 65,000

Cricket 9 - 14, Circ. 55,000

Fun For Kidz 5 - 14

Highlights 6 - 12, Circ. 2 million

Hopscotch Girls 5 - 14, Circ. 14,000

Jack And Jill 7 - 10, Circ. 360,000

Ladybug 3 - 6, Circ. 130,000

New Moon Girls 8 - 14, Circ. 30,000

Pockets* 6 - 11, Circ. 67,000

Shine Brightly* Girls 9 - 14, Circ. 13,000

Sparkle* Girls 6 - 9, Circ. 5,000

Spider 6 - 9, Circ. 70,000

I hope this makes it helpful for you to submit articles for magazines. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Book Review: Through the Fire

I just finished reading Shawn Grady's debut novel Through the Fire. I met Shawn last April at the Mount Hermon Writer's Conference during breakfast one morning. I found him very unassuming, soft-spoken and engaging.  Turned out that several at our table lived within a few hours of each other. We exchanged cards and information about what we wrote and hoped to one day get published. Then Shawn announced with a hand-out of goodies that his novel would be released on July 9th. We were very excited for him. It's wonderful to see that indeed there is hope for new authors getting published.

Shawn's book kept me turning pages. The story drew me in with vivid descriptions and careful character development. Aidan O'Neill struggled with inner ghosts while he and fellow firefighters chased down an elusive arsonist. Things shifted and changed throughout the novel, but never felt predictable with the exception of the growing attraction between Aidan and Julianne. Shawn's writing painted a picture of the intense danger a firefighter faces. Fire scenes built to a palpable level and I found myself there crawling on the floor of smoke-filled rooms, facing flames that "seemed to form faces. Razor teeth like a blacksmith's irons, a wall of glowering eyes encircling me."

Through the Fire is a great read. Oh... and expect to be sent to your dictionary more than a few times. This book will also expand your vocabulary with lines like "... clouds formed a soporific ceiling."  And "Piceous smoke surged from the overpass, sunlight coruscating off an overturned semi."

If you read Shawn's book already, leave a comment with your favorite twenty-five cent word from the book.

Manuscripts Received...I'm on My Way to Mount Hermon

Tomorrow I leave for a five-day writers conference at Mount Hermon in the Santa Cruz mountains. I sent two manuscripts ahead of the conference. One for editorial review by Nick Harrison, Senior Editor at Harvest House Publishers.  The other for critique by Barbara Curtis.

I'm very excited about the submission for editorial review. I submitted my picture book The Tail of Chessie--the Heart of God. It's been completely rewritten and critiqued. I am very happy with it. It's a great story about Dillon and his dog Chessie who endears herself to Dillon with an attentive personality and ever-wagging tail. Dillon learns about the character of God through Chessie.

I also submitted an adult article about personal growth through a tragic incident. I hope to get it published in a magazine.

I finished the manuscripts under duress of illness and mailed them off. Best of plans can be thwarted by being sick. My head was feeling foggy as I worked to carefully polish the manuscripts and get them in the mail. To my distress I noticed a blatant error on the first page of my picture book today as I was getting things ready to leave..Arghhhh! I'm hoping that it miraculously goes unnoticed.

Leave a comment and tell me your submission stories.