Lots of the magazines have opportunities for 'fillers'. These can be letters to the editor, household tips, funny anecdotes, cute pictures of children or animals, rants or opinions, jokes ...Writing these can be a good way to practice 'tight writing' and teach you to stick to the point. As fillers are submitted online or by email, there's nothing to lose, other than a few minutes of your time.
Having one published and therefore seeing your name in print and getting paid for a piece of writing is also hugely motivating, especially if it's your first acceptance, or first for a while. I know this because I wrote loads when I started out.
If the magazine also publishes fiction, or it's one you might like to write an article for, then creating fillers is a great way to study the market.
Have you ever written fillers? Would you like details of the opportunities available? If there's sufficient interest I'll do a regular feature with links or email addresses.
16 comments:
Although most of my 'fillers' are from the fridge or pantry, I would welcome further posts on this. For those of us fully immersed in our work, the smaller pieces are quite manageable and have the potential for recognition (as you say) as well as the prospect for some extra coin.
As the fiction spots are decreasing we all need these extra opportunities, so it would be good to see this market featured. :)
Absolutely. Agree with Carol. Any market...
I agree with everyone. Be really useful Patsy :)
I was thinking about fillers only yesterday. I would appreciate any help.
I too would like to see info on selling fillers. Thanks!
Good idea.
Fillers are how I have either made money or won lots of prizes over the years. I usually go with topics that interest me. Good idea to have a feature with links etc here for it.
Thank you to those who've replied. Of the 134 views this post has so far received, there are eight people interested in fillers. Although I'm not sure that justifies a regular feature, perhaps it shows there isn't too much competition for this aspect of writing for womags?
For those who are, Linda Lewis has written a book on the subject, available on Amazon Kindle:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=writing+fillers
I think perhaps enthusiasm generally has been dented by the TABFF shocker, which highlights how competitive the short fiction market is. But this blog is always a great source of encouragement.
I would be really interested in filler slots :)
Patsy, I'd definitely be interested in a piece on fillers - I'm struggling to write stories at the moment with two toddlers running around causing chaos! It would be a useful way to keep my hand in, I think, so any info or tips would be gratefully received, thanks.
Maggie Cobbett has also written a book about fillers.
Would much appreciate more information on this, particularly what markets to try, ideal lengths, do you need photos etc. Thank you for all your helpful blogs.
Very late to the party, but yes please! With so many short story markets closing their doors, this would be very useful - even if it was only an occasional round-up :)
OK, I give in! I'll post a few and see how it goes.
If anyone knows of any filler markets (even if they're not strictly womag) and would like to do a guest post, please 'contact me'.
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