Guest post by Womagwriter Charlotte Sabin.

Today's guest is Charlotte Sabin, talking about her very first womag sale.

I’ve been writing stories since high school and after I enjoyed a home study course in creative writing I decided to improve on my craft and go to university to study a degree in the creative writing and English literature but due to my mum becoming terminally ill I returned home early before completing my course so transferred my studies to distance learning and then years later achieved enough points to gain a higher education diploma which covered all aspects of creative writing and English literature. I knew I wanted to become a writer but having a family took priority so over the years I self published many children’s books with my fiancé, Andy Wegg, using kdp self publishing platform on Amazon but I still had this burning desire to write short stories for women magazines.

I had submitted and failed with many attempts over the years but it was only recently I thought 'I’m going to give it one more shot', so I wrote a handful of stories and sent them off to several magazines. I’ve had a few rejections so far, actually a lot, but I now know you should never give up on your dreams.

I have had my first success and had my ghost story – The Pink Ball published in this months edition (August) of Yours Fiction and another acceptance from Yours for another ghost story to be published in their October edition.

I sent the story to them via email, following their guidelines back in April and they sent me an email of acceptance in June with a copy of a contract attached and said the date of publication and how much I would be paid.

I was doing cartwheels around my living room and I am looking forward to going out to celebrate with Andy somewhere very special.

Seeing it on the shelf in Tesco was just surreal and seeing it in the magazine was so amazing and I couldn’t stop smiling – it looks fantastic and I can’t wait to see my next story in print and how it will look.

The advice I can give to writers is that never, ever give up and keep writing and keep sending your stories out as one day you could see your name in print and you can feel very proud of yourself! And I will mention use the support of those around you, especially family and loved ones as they are your readers and your proof readers and really listen to their opinions as I really couldn’t have achieved what I have set out to do without their help and their support.

Congratulations on your first sales, Charlotte. I'm sure there will be more, especially if you follow your own excellent advice to keep writing and submitting.

You can find Charlotte's children's books here.